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Falstaff @ Opera Cleveland 6/19 The story goes that Queen Elizabeth I instructed her favorite playwright Will Shakespeare to show her John Falstaff in love. It is to be presumed that she was pleased with the results. Certainly, she would have loved what Giuseppe Verdi and Arrigo Boito did to the play some 250+ years later. Absolutely, the Cleveland audience loved Falstaff at Friday night’s opening performance.

Director Peter Kazaras makes a specialty of humanizing his productions: they could easily be the folks next door rather than historical figures. Anna Björnsdotter’s costumes, however, were mostly appropriate to the period, as was made plain by the cast dressing right there on stage in front of us all, before time for the downbeat. In fact, music director Dean Williamson was up there, too, readily visible in his tux, as opposed to the variety of underclothing on display.

Once he assumed his place on the podium, however, it was all business. Funny business. Beginning with the portly knight himself, in the guise of Gaëtan Laperrière, possessed of great acting skills and a voice to match his great belly. Caitlyn Lynch and Fenlon Lamb, as Alice Ford and Meg Page, respectively, were a great comedic team, comely to look at, and well matched, vocally. As Ford, Alice’s jealous husband, David Won seemed a bit unsure of himself, except for his big song in the second act.

Anya Matanović nearly stole the show as Nannetta, with her winsome personality and sparkling soprano. No wonder Fenton was in love with her! Victor Ryan Robertson gave ample evidence of his infatuation, and his gorgeous tenor rang with authenticity.

Mezzo-soprano Melissa Parks as Mistress Quickly, was most adept at sparring with Sir John, while aiding and abetting those merry wives of Windsor. As Dr. Caius, local tenor Timothy M. R. Culver had numerous opportunities to display his comedic skills as well as his silvery tenor, even if his somewhat voluminous orange pantaloons tended to make him resemble the great pumpkin! His anguished cry “I married Bardolph!” near the end was priceless. Said Bardolph was served well by tenor Steven Goldstein, while Pistol was humorously enacted by Matthew Treviño.

The set by Donald Eastman (for Seattle Opera) was rather minimalist, but worked wonderfully well, especially in the last scene. The great oak was created by ladders and lots of straight chairs, artfully hung on the ladders, or fastened together and lowered all of a piece from the flies, with lanterns hung here and there. The effect was enchanting when the lanterns twinkled. Benjamin Pearcy’s lighting designs added to the magical effects throughout.

The very witty (and sometimes bawdy) English captions (the opera was sung in Italian) were created by Jonathan Dean for Seattle Opera. Production Stage Manager Valerie Wheeler kept everything moving smartly along. The orchestra was lush and/or sprightly, as required by the music. Falstaff, one of the greatest ensemble operas in the repertoire received a great ensemble production. Bravo, Opera Cleveland!

Details of the new season are now available at the website http://www.OperaCleveland.org.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Kelly Ferjutz artswriterATroadrunner.com
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