Unlike Wagner, the story is not in the music, but in the singing. Sweeping diatonic melodies alternate with divisive rests and accents. Verdi leaves little room for breathing in this swash of opera. Study the orchestration, the unusual uses of the piccolo, the sforzandi and elided numbers.
FALSTAFF OPERA MUSIC HOW TO
But how to listen to them historically? Start with perusing a score, perhaps from the local library. The maestro and composer embraced the Risorgimento, as fellow citizens of the Parma region, the belly of modern Italy, and Toscanini told his mother to get down on her knees after a performance of Otello and exclaim “Viva Verdi.” But one of Toscanini’s earliest memories of Verdi was the composer advising the young boy to drink sugared water as a remedy for a pernicious cough. Toscanini played the cello in Verdi’s La Scala orchestra for the premiere of Otello, where Verdi asked him to play a passage more loudly at one rehearsal. Like Giulietta Masina and Fellini, Verdi viewed Toscanini as an artist who could bring to fruition his aesthetic. Instead of people standing pointlessly around, here everything had a purpose.” The agreement between the music and the stage performance was something totally inconceivable to us. “To be sure, Toscanini had employed a stage director but basically the essential conception came from him. Of a production of Falstaff with Mariano Stabile, Karajan recalled: Karajan had plenty of access to Toscanini’s genius, working as the Salzburg Festival’s répétiteur during Toscanini’s tenure there between 19. Toscanini performed Falstaff during his first season at La Scala in 1898 Karajan perplexed his German-speaking audience by programming Falstaff in Aachen during his final season in 1941-2.
FALSTAFF OPERA MUSIC PROFESSIONAL
Falstaff was a favorite of the maestri and both took professional chances with it. The juxtaposition and accompanying extensive program notes encourage the aficionado to compare, contrast and delight in the music through the lens of time. This Andante release is a marvelous compilation of two recordings of Verdi’s Falstaff performed at the Salzburg festival, the first conducted by Arturo Toscanini in 1937, the second by Herbert Von Karajan in 1957. Meg PageĮlisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano) – Mrs. QuicklyĪnna Maria Canali (mezzo-soprano) – Mrs. Giulietta Simionato (mezzo-soprano) – Mrs. Tito Gobbi (baritone) – Sir John Falstaff Alice FordĬhor der Wiener Staatsoper Wiener Philharmoniker Mariano Stabile (baritone) – Sir John FalstaffĪngelica Cravcenco (mezzo-soprano) – Mrs.
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