Canadian Opera Company’s comedic and near flawless Falstaff—what a way to start the season.
Gerald Finley as Sir John Falstaff in the Canadian Opera Company production of Falstaff plays the epitome of life in excess.
Falstaff was Verdi’s final opera and it came six years after its predecessor. It was unlike anything he had ever produced and was met with mixed reviews, but today, Falstaff is often seen as one of his finest works. One could argue that at age 80 and after having a lifetime of operatic success, Verdi could do as he pleased, to hell with tradition and what people thought—this was an opera for him, something to make Giuseppe happy, and if he was lucky, it would make the audience happy too. Well, it may not have been so in La Scala 1893, but it certainly was on Friday night at the Four Seasons Centre for the Canadian Opera Company’s season opener.
John Falstaff is the very definition of life in excess. Grossly overweight, he indulges in everything—food, wine, sex—he simply revels in the pleasures of the good life, and here, crowd favourite Gerald Finlay embodies Falstaff’s largesse to perfection. Finlay, marking his return to the COC after a 20 year absence (he is much in demand world-wide), doesn’t miss a beat in either his comic timing or his rich delivery of quickly shifting vocal lines.
Most everything about Falstaff was expertly done. I don’t typically enjoy when directors modernize the opera (although I understand why they do), yet I felt Robert Carson did a wonderfully believable job of setting his Falstaff in 1950’s England without losing anything meaningful from the original. Paul Steinberg’s set, brown paneled walls, simple for the most part, worked in all the scenes, changing doorways and pictures, beds, becoming a barn (with a live horse), or a bright lemon-yellow kitchen, helped keep the audience in the period. The starry night scene that opened Act III was also simply enchanting.
Falstaff Set Designer Paul Steinberg created the perfect backdrop to Director Robert Carson’s 1950’s England.
Johannes Debus and his orchestra seemed to have fun with Verdi’s score which is at times quick and lilting, while always helping the audience really feel the harmony between the instruments and the singers. One of my only complaints is that at times I found the singing was not loud enough to get above the orchestra—however, this could have been simply opening night jitters.
Simone Osborne as Nannetta delivers a standout performance and is consistent throughout. In Act III as she graces the stage disguised as Queen of the Fairies, she invokes the magic of the forest and offers one of the more tender moments of the opera with her aria “Sul fil d’un soffio etesio” which is sung flawlessly. The COC chorus members were absolutely stunning here too, quietly accentuating the scene with their replies to the Queen.
Simone Osborne delivers a standout performance as young Nannetta in Falstaff.
Lyne Fotin and Lauren Segal as Alice Ford and Meg Page, Marie-Nicole Lemieux as Mistress Quickly, Colin Ainsworth and Robert Gleadow as Falstaff’s followers Bardolfo and Pistola and Russell Braun as Ford, all shine in their own right throughout the performance as well. I would be remiss not to acknowledge tenor Frédéric Antoun as Fenton, whose voice must rise above a throng of others to be heard in Act I’s finale, a brilliant ensemble piece.
The Canadian Opera Company could not have begun the season on a better note, Verdi’s Falstaff is a feel-good operatic night out that will have you laughing throughout and leaving with a smile on your face.
Falstaff is on stage until November 1st and plays at the Four Seasons Centre. For tickets, or more information, please visit: www.COC.ca
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