PASA REVIEWS

Falstaff
Santa Fe Opera, June 27
A rogue is a rogue is a rogue
How can we forgive such a rogue as Sir John Falstaff? Unprincipled, but
endearing. Lusty, clueless, a narcissist. And there’s the matter of his girth.
He’s enormous — his belly’s so large it buoys him up and saves him from
drowning (more on this later). He’s a character of flesh and blood, but he’s
larger-than-life too; we suspect he is one of the immortals, even as he gloats
over a mug of sack in his favorite watering hole.
The Santa Fe Opera’s production of Verdi’s Falstaff opened the company’s
52nd season on June 27. French baritone Laurent Naouri, last seen here in
2006 as Escamillo in Carmen, commands the title role. Naouri is a convincing
actor, responsive to his colleagues on
stage. He’s playful, his physical acting
feels utterly spontaneous. Add to this
a powerful baritone of resonant beauty,
and Naouri captures us with his Sir
John Falstaff.
Falstaff, written “just to pass the time”
when Verdi was nearly 80, and after
50 years of writing tragedies, is a lyric
comedy in three acts. Well-known poet
and composer Arrigo Boito adapted
Shakespeare’s comedy The Merry Wives
of Windsor and bolstered it with passages
from the Henry IV plays to create his
comic libretto.
Falstaff, who has seen better days,
holds his tiny court at the Garter Inn.
His scruffy servants — Bardolph (the
Ken Howard
The romantic subplot — between the sweethearts Nannetta and the hand-
some young Fenton (the honey-voiced tenor Norman Reinhardt) — provide
the story’s Super Glue. Mr. Ford does not approve of his daughter’s suitor and
makes it clear that she will wed Dr. Caius. But Windsor’s merry wives aren’t
merry for naught. The ensuing comic byplay ends with Falstaff (whose layers
of finery offer a hint at his once-knightly bearing) getting dumped into the
putrid Thames.
Act III finds our formerly fine Knight soggy and bitter. “O Wicked World,”
he tells his young page (who we assume has fished him out). Naouri breaks
our hearts here. A stein of wine soon dispenses Falstaff’s dark musings.
The orchestra’s expressive accompaniment illustrates the thrill as the
mulled wine travels into Sir John’s waterlogged brain. But, ho — here’s that
Mistress Quickly again. She addresses “His Reverence”: Alice still yearns for
him. Look — here’s her letter beseeching him to meet that very night. The
midnight rendezvous, Quickly chimes, shall be at Hearne’s oak, in Windsor
Great Park, but Sir John must wear — more manliness — antlers!
The scene in Windsor Great Park is pure magic, thanks to scenic designer
Allen Moyer. Hearne’s oak appears to have been wrenched from the ground in
times past. Huge roots twist and vestigial branches turn. The sky is velvet and
twinkles with stars; Duane Schuler’s lighting glows a Maxfield Parrish blue.
Paolo Arrivabeni led the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra on solid footing
throughout the score, which has as its core purpose the framing of Falstaff’s
orations. The piece rushed by like liquid mercury. Alas, at times it was
difficult to hear the merry wives: pit-stage volume balance, especially in the
first act, seemed tipped to the orchestra. In a notoriously difficult ensemble
piece in Act I, men sing perfectly in one meter while their female counterparts
plot in another — Family Feud gone mad. The magnificent eight-part closing
fugue — well, you’ll have to take my word for it.
Or better yet, take Verdi at his word: “Falstaff is a rogue who gets into
every kind of mischief … but in an amusing way. He’s a type. Types are so
various! The opera is entirely comic! Amen.”
— Kristina Melcher

able tenor Keith Jameson), and Pistol

(the comical bass Wilbur Pauley), attend
him. In bursts a pompous and choleric
Dr. Caius (energetic tenor Corey Bix),
who accuses the henchmen of robbing
A dear in the headlights: Laurent Naouri him while he was drunk. Falstaff, not
as Sir John Falstaff impressed, sends him packing. His own
financial outlook is dire and inspires his
plot: two fine ladies, very married, hold the purse strings of their well-to-do
burgher husbands. Perhaps a profitable liaison is in the offing. His own purse
is depleted, but his girth is his wealth! Nevertheless, he has written two iden-
tical mash notes and orders his two charges to deliver them. They protest, so
Falstaff’s tiny pageboy, Robin (an adorable Trevor Wilson), is dispatched.
Two merry wives of Windsor, Alice Ford and Meg Page (an SFO debutante,
soprano Claire Rutter, and mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor), read the letters,
discover the gambit, and are amused — and outraged. With help from Alice’s
daughter Nannetta (Laura Giordano) and Mistress Quickly (mezzo Nancy
Maultsby) they devise their own scheme to induce the odious Falstaff to
come to the Ford house for a severe spanking. Quickly, brilliantly playing it
madcap à la I Love Lucy, calls on Sir John, flatters his titanic ego, and tells him
that Alice is madly in love with him. There’s more, she says: Alice awaits him
between the hours of 2 and 3, when her husband is out every day. (Where does
he go?) And Mrs. Page, Quickly insists, is in a similar state of ardor. Quickly
produces handkerchiefs belonging to each as tokens — and as proof.
Meanwhile, the manly men in this tale galvanize. They are much aggrieved
and cook up Falstaff’s comeuppance. Their plan includes Mr. Ford (the
lusty-sounding baritone Franco Pomponi) disguising himself as yet another
would-be paramour for Mistress Ford. The ladies are busy devising their own
machinations.
‘Falstaff’ continues with performances on Saturday, July 5, 11, and 29 and
Aug. 4, 11, 16, 19, 23. For ticket information, call 986-5900 or go online
to santafeopera.org.
The Marriage of Figaro
Santa Fe Opera, June 28
Bitten by the love bug
Ever notice how much fun it is to go to the opera when it’s a comedy?
Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, based on the French farce by Pierre-
Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, is probably the best comic opera about
revenge, adultery, and almost-incest that you’ll ever find.
Flavor it with elaborate sets, ornate costumes, and a superb ensemble of
performers, and you have the equivalent of an operatic grand slam — as
demonstrated by the Santa Fe Opera’s production, which opened on
Saturday night.
Mozart and his frequent collaborator, librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, wisely
remained faithful to the political underpinnings of Beaumarchais’ theatrical
battle of the sexes. There’s certainly a number of laugh-out-loud moments in
this production, but Mozart and da Ponte also realized that the piece would
benefit from a melodic drive of drama: These are real people with real needs,
whether they are trying their best to avoid sexual compromise or win back
an errant lover.

16 July 4 - 10, 2008