Falstaff (1893) Hohenstein design for world premiere. Courtesy/SFO
Santa Fe Opera Guild News:
Santa Fe Opera Guild Presents a talk by Mark Tiarks Desirée Mays: “Falstaff: Portraits of a Scoundrel or of a Saint, If You Asked His Opinion”.
The talk is 3 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23 on zoom, with check-In 2:50 p.m. MDT.
This event is complimentary for guild members and $10 for non-members.
Shakespeare’s Falstaff has almost none of the conventional virtues, but we love him in spite of it, or perhaps because of it and his irrepressible zest for life.
Giuseppe Verdi had searched for years to find a suitable comic opera subject without success, and never seems to have considered Falstaff as a possibility, even though Shakespeare was one of his favorite authors.
That all changed when he met composer-librettist Arrigo Boito, who prepared the text for Otello. After its great success, Verdi confided to his collaborator, “After having relentlessly massacred so many heroes and heroines, I have at last the right to laugh a little”, and Boito began surreptitious work on a libretto based on The Merry Wives of Windsor.
In this presentation some of the key scenes from Verdi’s and Boito’s masterpiece of comedy and, at times, pathos are explored. The audience also will have brief looks at two Falstaff operas that preceded Verdi’s—Antonio Salieri’s Falstaff and Otto Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor—as well as at Orson Welles’ unforgettable portrayal of the rascal knight in his film Chimes at Midnight.
Tiarks served as the director of planning and marketing of the Santa Fe Opera for 11 years. His earlier professional positions include general director of Chicago Opera Theater, producing director of Court Theatre, and artistic administrator of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. He is on the board of directors of Renesan where he also is a lecturer and member of the curriculum committee. Tiarks is the classical music critic for The Santa Fe New Mexican.
For information and to register, visit https:////www.guildsofsfo.org/SantaFe/Events.html.
