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- Historical persons (HP) behind the opera characters
- Performers and collaborators of the first Premieres
- Performers most liked by Giuseppe Verdi and his wife Giuseppina Strepponi
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Falstaff
- Opera in 3 acts, Italian
- Libretto Arrigo Boito
- Based on the play The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare, Bard of Avon
- Time: The reign of Henry IV, 1399 to 1413. Place: Windsor, England.
- Premiere Teatro alla Scala, Milan, 9 February 1893
Painting by Henry Fuseli: Falstaff in the Washbasket, 1792
In Windsor forrest near Herne's Oak. Painting by Gavin Hamilton (oil) - 18th Century.
- Characters:
- Sir John Falstaff, a fat knight, baritone
- HP Sir John Oldcastle, MP
- HP Sir John Fastolf II, KG
- HP Robert Greene in Wikipedia
- HP William Rogers
- Victor Maurel sang in the first premiere 9 Feb 1893 /// "Quand'ero Paggio"
- Niels Juel Simonsen
- Antonio Magini Coletti
- David Scull Bispham
- Giuseppe Pacini
- Francesco Maria Bonini
- Antonio Scotti
- Giuseppe De Luca
- Pasquale Amato
- Mariano Stabile
- Ture Ara
- Hans Hotter
- Leonard Warren
- Gino Bechi
- Tito Gobbi
- Giuseppe Taddei
- Fernando Corena
- Geraint Llewellyn Evans
- Ettore Bastianini
- Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
- Piero Cappuccilli
- Usko Viitanen
- Ezio Domenico Flagello
- Ingvar Wixell
- Renato Bruson
- Ruggero Raimondi
- Ford, a wealthy man, baritone
- Antonio Camillo Francesco Pini-Corsi sang in the first premiere 9 Feb 1893
- Giuseppe Campanari His first success in the first American Falstaff, with Maurel in the title role.
- Lawrence Mervil Tibbett
- Paolo Silveri
- Robert Merrill
- Sesto Bruscantini
- Rolando Panerai
- Usko Viitanen
- Kari Nurmela
- Tom Gunnar Krause
- Jorma Hynninen
- Alice Ford, his wife, soprano
- Emma Zilli sang in the first premiere 9 Feb 1893
- Leonilda Paini Gabbi
- Ada Vittoria Matilde Botti
- Maria Labia
- Pauline Donalda
- Gilda Dalla Rizza
- Gina Cigna
- Dusolina Giannini
- Maria Caniglia
- Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
- Hilde Güden
- Leontyne Price
- Renata Scotto
- Mirella Freni
- Carol Lee Neblett
- Cynthia Hansell-Bakic
- Nannetta, their daughter, soprano
- Adelina Stehle sang in the first premiere 9 Feb 1893
- Giuseppina Huguet
- Luisa Bianco-Tamagno
- Giannina Arangi-Lombardi
- Toti Dal Monte
- Gianna Perea Labia
- Hilde Güden
- Reri Thomson
- Anna Moffo
- Mirella Freni
- Meg Page, mezzo-soprano
- Virginia Guerrini sang in the first premiere 9 Feb 1893
- Anna Maria Rota
- Mistress Quickly, contralto
- Giuseppina Pasqua sang in the first premiere 9 Feb 1893
- Virginia Guerrini
- Irma Tervani
- Giulietta Simionato
- Fedora Barbieri
- Fiorenza Cossotto
- Lucia Valentini Terrani
- Fenton, one of Nannetta's suitors, tenor
- Edoardo Garbin sang in the first premiere 9 Feb 1893
- Gino Martinez-Patti
- Fiorello Giraud
- Jan Peerce
- Veikko Tyrväinen
- Carlo Bergonzi
- Alfredo Kraus
- Dr Caius, tenor
- Giovanni Paroli sang in the first premiere 9 Feb 1893
- Fernando De Lucia
- Gaetano Pini-Corsi
- Bardolfo, a follower of Falstaff, tenor
- Pistola, a follower of Falstaff, bass
- Vittorio Arimondi (Saluzzo 3 June 1861 - Chicago 15 April 1928) sang in the world premiere
- Pentti Arnold Hilmanpoika Tuominen
- Sir John Falstaff, a fat knight, baritone
- Scenographers and costume designors:
- Adolfo Hohenstein The first premiere 9 Feb 1893.
- Conductors:
- Edoardo Antonio Mascheroni conducted in the first premiere 9 Feb 1893
- Arturo Toscanini (La Scala; Metropolitan)
- Emil Albertovich Cooper
- Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet
- Herbert von Karajan
- Sir Georg Solti
- Carlo Maria Giulini
- Leonard Bernstein in Vienna with Visconti
- Claudio Abbado
- Riccardo Muti
- James Lawrence Levine
- Stage directors:
- Vladimir Rosing (in 1958 at Her Majesty's Theatre London with Emil Cooper and Pauline Donalda)
- Guido Salvini (In 1935 at the Salzburg Festival the famous Falstaff conducted by Toscanini)
- Luchino Visconti (Wiener Staatsoper 1966 with Bernstein)
- Herbert von Karajan
- Giorgio Olimpio Guglielmo Strèhler (La Scala, Milan 1980)
- Franco Zeffirelli (Holland Festival 1956; Covent Garden 1961; Metropolitan 1964)
- Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
- Luca Roncóni (Grosses Festpielhaus Salzburg 10 Aug 1993; Teatro Comunale di Firenze 12 May .2006; Teatro Petruzzelli di Bari 20 Nov 2013)
- Giancarlo Del Monaco (Genoa. Las Palmas, Nice)
- Audience in the world premiere 9 Feb 1893
Giuseppe Verdi acclaimed at La Scala at the end of the first performance of Falstaff, February 9 1893, Milan, Italy. (Engraving by Gennaro Amato)
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