San Gabriel Valley Gathering: Falstaff

MON APRIL 13 7PM

FALSTAFF

SPEAKER: RON STREICHER

SAN GABRIEL VALLEY GATHERING

RSVP TO HOST MICHAEL SHOLER

818-502-1988

Verdi’s Falstaff premiered at La Scala in Milan on February 9, 1983. It was to be his last opera — and is considered by many to be his best. His only successful comic opera, it followed Otello by six years and was only his third based on a character by Shakespeare.  Sir John Falstaff first appeared in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2 and was brought back, by popular demand, in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Boito’s libretto draws from both of these plays for Verdi’s setting of the opera.  During this talk, LA Opera Community Educator Ron Streicher will present scenes from the Shakespeare plays to demonstrate —with corresponding excerpts from the opera — how Verdi and Boito adapted these to the operatic stage.