As strange as it seems to me, "Shakespeare" is a word that can often send dread through people's hearts. Upon hearing it, many are transported back to their high school English classes. They remember tedious exercises in translation and something about "iambic pentameter." Some believe that Shakespeare is something only a certain type of intellectual can appreciate. I think this is a shame because this is exactly the opposite of what Shakespeare wrote his plays to be.
First of all, it can do you no harm to read one of the bard's plays, but they are meant to be seen! The pages only truly come to life on stage. With this production of Merry Wives, it is my goal to make Shakespeare accessible, interesting, and most importantly fun!
The Merry Wives of Windsor has been called the first sitcom. Even though you may not be familiar with the play, you are indeed familiar with it's characters - the jealous, impractical husband, the cheeky wife, the rebellious teenage daughter, etc. It is a fast-moving farce about the consequences of taking oneself too seriously with a heavy dose of schadenfreude.
I encourage everyone to take a break from the tedious nature of everyday life, come see the show, and enjoy laughing at the absurdity of the ridiculous characters on stage.
Brittany Martz
Stage Director
Merry Wives of Windsor
Falstaff is the last of 28 operas, and only second comedy, of one of the greatest opera composers of all time, Giuseppe Verdi. At age 76, he wrote to his librettist, Arrigo Boito (a famous composer in his own right): "After having relentlessly massacred so many heroes and heroines, I have at last the right to laugh a little." Boito said nothing at the time but secretly began work on a libretto based on The Merry Wives of Windsor with additional material taken from Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2. Verdi received the draft libretto probably in early July 1889 after he had just read Shakespeare's play: "Benissimo! Benissimo!... No one could have done better than you...So be it! So let's do Falstaff!
So anticipated was Verdi's final masterpiece that on the opening night at La Scala in Milan, on 9 February 1893, (when Verdi was 80), official ticket prices were thirty times higher than usual. Royalty, aristocracy, critics and leading figures from the arts all over Europe were present. The performance was a huge success; numbers were encored, and at the end the applause for Verdi and the cast lasted an hour. Even more hectic scenes ensued when he went to Rome in May for the opera's premiere at the Teatro Costanzi, when crowds of well-wishers at the railway station initially forced Verdi to take refuge in a tool-shed. He witnessed the performance from the Royal Box with the King and Queen of Italy.
Early critics had their concerns, however. One British critic complained of a lack of recognizable anthem-like melodies, that until Falstaff (and possibly Otello, his penultimate work) had been Verdi's calling card. "Let it be admitted that there are fragments of melody as exquisite and haunting as anything that Verdi has written elsewhere, such as the duet of Nanetta and Fenton in the first act and the song of Fenton at the beginning of the final scene, which have something of the lingering beauty of an Indian summer. But in comparison with every other work of the composer, it is wanting in tunes of a broad and impressive character."
Another critic exclaimed:" The listener is bombarded by a stunning diversity of rhythms, orchestral textures, melodic motifs and harmonic devices. Passages that in earlier times would have furnished material for an entire number here crowd in on each other, shouldering themselves unceremoniously to the fore in bewildering succession."
The great turn of the 20th century conductor, Toscanini, recognized that this was the view of many, but he believed the work to be Verdi's greatest opera; he said, "I believe it will take years and years before the general public understand this masterpiece, but when they really know it they will run to hear it like they do now for Rigoletto and La Traviata."
Modern audiences have embraced the work, believing it to be a true herald of the musical and operatic innovations to come in the 20th century and beyond. Verdi had a lifelong love affair with Shakespeare (he also set Othello and MacBeth, and worked on King Lear but never finished it) culminating in a worthy tribute to one of Shakespeare's most recognizable and beloved characters. Sir John's character is based upon his self-esteem, which surpasses self-conceit. If he were merely a loudmouth, a windbag, a glutton, a drunk, we would not find ourselves in him, however true to life those portrayals may be. We find ourselves in him because, despite his less than savory behaviors, he is a hero in his own mind, and that carries over into how others treat him, even when they "make an ass" of him. He is a useless knight, and masks his antipathy for valor with blustery speeches and self congratulatory plaudits. He bears jovial contempt for everyone and everything, and yet, he is not a malcontent nor misanthrope. After all, what is a show without an audience?
English critic R.A. Streatfeild noted, shortly before the public premiere: "For one terrible moment in the last act his self-satisfaction wavers. He looks round and sees every one laughing at him. Can it be that he has been made a fool of? But no, he puts the horrible suggestion from him, and in a flash is himself again. "Tis I," he exclaims with a triumphant inspiration, "I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men", (a line from Henry IV part 2.) Verdi has caught this touch and indeed a hundred others throughout the opera with astonishing truth and delicacy."
It is my honor to present this work in this years' repertory season of Shakespeare Opera Theatre. I hope you enjoy listening for the crazy juxtaposition of melodies, the complicated and yet accessible counterpoint of tune after tune pelting your ears like so many pearlescent raindrops. I particularly enjoy directing in the Gregory Family Theatre here at the Hylton Center, which has a beautiful wrap around balcony and strongly resembles Shakespeare's Swan Theatre in London. Performers are able to enter from 9 different places, making for an adventure of sights and sounds as performers pop out from unexpected places, and voices waft to the audience from all directions. Prepare to be immersed in a full Shakespearian experience, from our hearts to yours, as we bring you delights from the Elizabethan era, to Verdi's Italy, and to the modern age we now share.
Dr. Lori Lind
Conductor/Director, Verdi's "Falstaff"
Managing Director, Shakespeare Opera Theatre