
Milan last greeted Verdi’s final opera Falstaff in 2004. Nine
years ago, Teatro alla Scala was closed, pending restoration, so the Giorgio Strehler
production curtained under Muti's baton at Teatro degli Arcimboldi on the
city's outskirts, dedicated to Tito Gobbi's death-year 20th anniversary for his
enduring, late 1950s whiskered Falstaff with Herbie von Karajan and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.
It was also the year of OC's inaugural Milan visit, and
over summer break, she visited La Scala's museum, its collections temporarily
housed in a stunning palazzo on Corso Magenta that overlooked Santa Maria della
Grazia. The Northern Italian city of understated, un-boastful elegance struck OC as one who
never tried too hard -- the very definition of cool -- and instantly
reverberated with New York-based OC. Aaaand you guys pretty much know the rest
of the story.
Falstaff (tonight in its penultimate replication) is the
only Robert Carsen- stamped production in Teatro alla Scala’s 2012-13 season (in
coproduction with Royal Opera House and the Canadian Opera Company) and as
Carsen Crusaders, we weren’t going to miss it. We find his b-side, hidden track
of ripe sexuality -- never vulgar or desperate (unless it has to be) -- and his
fashion title familiarity a winning match for Milan, and since we’re not convinced
that Falstaff needs a traditional Shakespearian director to stage it, we loved
it.
We've never supported a buffo Falstaff staging and feel
that it needs a delicate balance between commedia lirica and opera seria -- a fat
knight mocked in his twilight, a bittersweet glimpse of flawed man too arrogant
to realize it until everything converges in absolute absurdity -- tutto nel
mondo e' burla -- and that's where a lot of lazy directors get it wrong.