 
Così fan tutte
Don Carlo, Falstaff
Die Fledermaus
Concert 2001
Narrated Music
Shir Ha Shirim
Notes
Paumgartner
Musically insured
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PEACE IS ONLY TO BE FOUND IN GOD
Alessandro Gamba writes about Giuseppe Verdi's work on Falstaff
With the operas Don Carlo and Falstaff the Salzburg Festival is commemorating the 100th anniversary of the death of Giuseppe Verdi in 1901.
"I am old ... It is all over! Leave me in peace: it is the last time". Giuseppe Verdi spoke these words on 5 February 1887. Shortly beforehand the world premiere of Otello had come to an end and been greeted with thunderous applause. Fortunately Verdi's words proved to be a lie. Milan, two years later: Verdi was guest of honour at a dinner party. Suddenly Arrigo Boito raised his glass, "Let's drink to the well-being of the man with the paunch!" The guests at the table remained seated, puzzled; they observed Verdi, the most charismatic person of everyone present. He appeared to be slightly annoyed. Some understood - and began to clap feebly.
Falstaff - the man with a paunch
What had happened? After many attempts at persuading the revered maestro
of Italian opera to compose another opera, the writer and librettist Boito
had succeeded. From The Merry Wives of Windsor and King Henry IV by William
Shakespeare (Verdi's favourite author) Boito had secretly compiled a libretto:
Falstaff - the man with a paunch. On 9 February 1889 he wrote to the composer,
"There is only one better way to bring one's œuvre to an end
than with Otello and that is to do so victoriously with Falstaff."
The following day Verdi replied, "Dear Boito, Amen! So be it. Let's
do Falstaff!" Not long afterwards Verdi began work on the composition.
In September 1892 Verdi wrote to his publisher Giulio Ricordi:
"As regards Falstaff, I do not wish to tie myself down in any way.
However, I promise the publisher Ricordi to perform the opera during the
carnival season 1892/93 at La Scala, on condition that the agreed ensemble
is present in full. Nevertheless I reserve for myself the right to change
one or the other singer, if I am not satisfied at the rehearsals. Falstaff
can be premiered in the first few days of February, if the theatre is
completely available for me from 2 January. The rehearsals will be scheduled
as usual, only the final dress rehearsal is to be different from normal.
At La Scala I have never experienced a final rehearsal as it should be
in a house of this standing. But this time I will remain relentless. It's
not that I want to complain but if there is anything that is not as it
should be, I will leave the theatre immediately."
The whole world's a joke
As usual Verdi was present at every rehearsal. One thing was different though, he no longer became annoyed. "I have become silent, patient, gentle and calm." Before the orchestral rehearsals started, Verdi himself accompanied from the piano. "Admirers and opponents, friends and enemies, true and false musicians, competent and incompetent critics from all over the world land here ... The theatre will absolutely never be large enough to hold all that ... Verdi has achieved something remarkable. All the problems have been overcome ... Yesterday for the first time he let me attend a rehearsal. As far as I can judge, it seems to me that Falstaff will introduce a new art of drama and music on stage ..." (Giuseppina, Verdi's wife, wrote this to her sister). The world premiere on 9 February 1893 was a great success: the audience, critics, composers, politicians from all over the world honoured the grand maître. "The whole world's a joke".
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| Gérard Uféras, Grand Théatre de Genève, 1990 |
The strangest example of appreciation was shown by a composer who was still young at the time, the later co-founder of the Salzburg Festival, Richard Strauss. In 1894 he sent Verdi a copy of the piano score of his opera Guntram. In the accompanying letter he expressed the wish to be allowed to visit the master so as to be able to discuss music and opera with him. "Incapable of finding words to describe the extraordinary beauty of Falstaff or to express my gratitude for this re-birth of the intellect, I ask Your Honour to accept this score." Verdi confused the Bavarian Strauss with the Viennese Strauß dynasty and thought it was the composer of the famous waltzes who had written to him. He did not reply. In any case he would not have replied to anyone any more. This time the end of his career really was imminent.
Falstaff was to be Verdi's final opera
27 January 1901: Verdi was in Milan, in his room in the Grand Hotel. In the period since the world premiere of Falstaff eight years earlier he had only composed a Te Deum (1896) and a Stabat mater (1897). The Stefani agency reported the death of the composer on the afternoon of that day. There was great mourning. "I want my funeral to be very modest and it is to take place at dawn or in the evening when the Ave Maria is rung, without singing or music." And that is how it was on 30 January 1901. And we can imagine Verdi's last days ... floating between irony and nihilism ... slowly losing the feel of reality surrounding him ... how the words of the most mysterious of his operatic characters, the monk in Don Carlos resound in his soul: "The peace your heart hopes for can only be found in God."
Alessandro Gamba
Giuseppe Verdi – Don Carlo
In the four-act Italian version of 1884 with German and English supertitles
Conductor Lorin Maazel
Stage director, sets and costumes Herbert Wernicke
Dramaturgy Albrecht Puhlmann
Chorus master Donald Palumbo
Filippo II Ferruccio Furlanetto
Don Carlo Neil Shicoff
Rodrigo Thomas Hampson
Il Grande Inquisitore Anatoli Kotscherga
Un Frate (Carlo V) Franz-Josef Selig
Elisabetta di Valois Marina Mescheriakova
La Principessa Eboli Olga Borodina
Tebaldo Gaële Le Roi
La Contessa d’Aremberg Ursula Pfitzner
Il Conte di Lerma Guy Renard
Un Araldo Reale Ilya Levinsky
Una Voce dal Cielo Diana Damrau
Vienna Philharmonic
Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus
Großes Festspielhaus
Revival: 9 August 2001
15, 19, 23 und 26 August 2001
Performances start at 6 p.m.
All performances are sold out.
Giuseppe Verdi – Falstaff
In italienischer Sprache mit deutschen und englischen Übertiteln
Conductor Lorin Maazel
Director Declan Donnellan
Stage and costume design Nick Ormerod
Lighting Judith Greenwood
Chorus master Donald Palumbo
Sir John Falstaff Bryn Terfel
Ford Dwayne Croft
Fenton Massimo Giordano
Dottore Cajus Enrico Facini
Bardolfo Anthony Mee
Pistola Anatoli Kotscherga
Mrs. Alice Ford Carmela Remigio
Nannetta Heidi Grant Murphy
Mrs. Quickly Larissa Diadkova
Mrs. Meg. Page Stella Doufexis
Vienna Philharmonic
Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus
Großes Festspielhaus
New production:
Premiere on 27 July 2001
30 July, 5, 8, 13 and 17 August
Performances start at 7.30 p.m.
Tickets are still available for the performances on 30 July and
8 August in the categories
ATS 3,600 and 4,600, and on
8 August also in the categories ATS 2,800, on 5 August for
ATS 3,600.