Falstaff

The Glyndebourne Festival Opera mounted this production of Giuseppe Verdi's 1893 Falstaff under the direction of Richard Jones in 2009. Regarded as Verdi's comical magnum opus, the work was actually adapted from two Shakespeare plays, The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV, and brings back to the stage one of the Bard's most beloved characters: the corpulent and perpetually cowardly knight Sir John Falstaff. This version stars Christopher Purves as Falstaff, Yannis Christoyannis as Ford, Dina Kuznetsova as Alice Ford and Marie-Nicole Lemieux as Mistress Quickly. The London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Glyndebourne Chorus lend musical accompaniment, with Vladimir Jurowski conducting and Thomas Blunt serving as chorus master; Ultz designed the costumes and sets.