Tutto Verdi - The Complete Operas Boxset Disc 26 : Falstaff (2012) [Full Blu-ray]

On the occasion of the 200th birthday of Giuseppe Verdi, the Teatro Regio di Parma and Unitel ClassiCa have joined forces to realize a truly unique project. Up to the Verdi anniversary year 2013, all of the composer’s 26 operas, as well as the Requiem – which is closely related to the operas – will be performed and audiovisually recorded in and around Parma. For the first time ever, and on time for the composer’s anniversary, Verdi’s operatic oeuvre, which comprises the labor of more than 50 years, will be available in high definition and surround sound.
Falstaff is an opera in three acts by the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV, parts 1 and 2. The work, described by its creators as a commedia lirica, premiered on 9 February 1893 at La Scala, Milan. Verdi wrote Falstaff, which was the last of his twenty-eight operas, as he was approaching the age of eighty. It was his second comedy, and his third work based on a Shakespeare play, following Macbeth and Otello. The plot revolves around the thwarted, sometimes farcical, efforts of the fat knight, Sir John Falstaff, to seduce two married women for mercenary reasons.
Boito persuaded Verdi out of retirement to compose the opera, which took the collaborators three years from mid-1889 to complete. Although the prospect of a new opera from Verdi aroused immense interest in Italy and round the world, Falstaff did not prove to be as popular as earlier works in the composer's canon. After the initial performances in Italy, other European countries and the US, the work was neglected until the conductor Arturo Toscanini insisted on its revival at La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Some felt that the piece suffered from a lack of the full-blooded melodies of the best of Verdi's previous operas, a view strongly contradicted by Toscanini. Conductors of the generation after Toscanini to champion the work included Herbert von Karajan, Georg Solti and Leonard Bernstein. The work is now part of the regular operatic repertory.
Verdi made numerous changes to the music after the first performance and editors have found difficulty in agreeing on a definitive score. The work was first recorded in 1932, and has subsequently received many studio recordings and live tapings. Singers closely associated with the title role have included Victor Maurel (the first Falstaff), Mariano Stabile, Giuseppe Valdengo, Tito Gobbi, Geraint Evans and Bryn Terfel.

Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi

Performer: Romina Tomasoni (Mezzo Soprano), Svetla Vassileva (Soprano), Barbara Bargnesi (Soprano),
Daniela Pini (Soprano), Antonio Gandía (Tenor), Ambrogio Maestri (Baritone)
Conductor: Andrea Battistoni
Orchestra/Ensemble: Parma Teatro Regio Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1893; Italy



Production: C Major
Runtime: 2:11:01
Quality: Blu-ray
Container: BDMV
Video codec: AVC
Audio codec: DTS,LPCM
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 28445 kbps / 1080i / 29.970 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio#1: Italian LPCM 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit
Audio#2: Italian DTS-HD MA 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3853 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles: Italian, English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese