
It is to composer and librettist Arrigo Boito and his constant pestering of the octogenarian Verdi that there remained within him one last great comedy fighting to get out that we owe this absolute miracle of an opera. Produced in 1893 as Verdi turned 80 there is much in this masterpiece that can be identified as a modernist neoclassical work. The use of short motifs instead of long arioso melodic lines, the spry and reduced orchestral textures and the lack of a single 'stand and deliver' dramatic declamatory aria all serve to make this more of a 20th century work than an example of 19th century late-Romanticism.
Cast

Mirella Freni
Alice Ford
Barbara Bonney
Nannetta

Paul Plishka
Sir John Falstaff
Bruno Pola
Ford

Marilyn Horne
Mistress Quickly

Frank Lopardo
Fenton
Piero De Palma
Dr. Cajus

Anthony Laciura
Bardolfo

James Courtney
Pistola

Susan Graham
Meg Page

James Levine
Self - Conductor
Carole Wright
Mistress of the Inn
Tim Willson
The Innkeeper
MET Orchestra
Unknown
Crew

Franco Zeffirelli
Director, Production Design, Set Designer

Brian Large
Director
Arrigo Boito
Writer
Louisa Briccetti
Producer
Daniel Anker
Producer
Jessica Ruskin
Production Assistant
Susan Erben
Production Assistant
Bill King
Sound Supervisor
Gil Wechsler
Lighting Design

Giuseppe Verdi
Original Music Composer
Ron Washburn
Technical Supervisor
William Burdick
Choreographer
Joseph Volpe
General Manager
Paul Mills
Stage Director

James Levine
Conductor, Art Direction
Victoria Warivonchik
Production Secretary
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