View source for Falstaff (opera)

===Conception===
By 1889 Verdi had been an opera composer for more than fifty years. He had written 27 operas, of which only one was a comedy, his second work, ''[[Un giorno di regno]]'', staged unsuccessfully in 1840.<ref>Budden, Vol. 1, pp. 69–74</ref> His fellow composer [[Rossini]] commented that he admired Verdi greatly, but thought him incapable of writing a comedy. Verdi disagreed and said that he longed to write another light-hearted opera, but nobody would give him the chance.<ref name=klein>Klein, John W. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/911833 "Verdi and ''Falstaff''"], ''[[The Musical Times]]'', 1 July 1926, pp. 605–607 {{subscription required}}</ref> He had included moments of comedy even in his tragic operas, for example in ''[[Un ballo in maschera]]'' and ''[[La forza del destino]]''.<ref>Baldini, p. 220</ref>

[[File:Verdi Man and Musician (1897) 1.jpg|thumb|upright|Verdi in 1897]]

For a comic subject Verdi considered [[Cervantes]]' ''[[Don Quixote]]'' and plays by [[Carlo Goldoni|Goldoni]], [[Molière]] and [[Labiche]], but found none of them wholly suitable.<ref name=klein /> The singer [[Victor Maurel]] sent him a French libretto based on Shakespeare's ''[[The Taming of the Shrew]]''. Verdi liked it, but replied that "to deal with it properly you need a Rossini or a [[Donizetti]]".{{refn|Authorities differ on the date of Maurel's offering. Algernon St John-Brenon in ''The Musical Quarterly'' in 1916 put the date at 1886, before the premiere of ''Otello''.<ref>St John-Brenon, Algernon. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/738179 "Giuseppe Verdi"], ''The Musical Quarterly'', January 1916, pp. 130–162</ref> Karen Henson in ''19th-Century Music'' in 2007 quotes letters from 1890 that show Maurel's offer of the French libretto as dating from that year, while it was still a secret that Verdi was working on ''Falstaff''.<ref>Henson, Karen. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/ncm.2007.31.2.113 "Verdi versus Victor Maurel on Falstaff"], ''19th-Century Music'', November 2007, pp. 113–130 {{subscription required}}</ref>|group=n}} Following the success of ''[[Otello]]'' in 1887 he commented, "After having relentlessly massacred so many heroes and heroines, I have at last the right to laugh a little." He confided his ambition to the librettist of ''Otello'', [[Arrigo Boito]].<ref name=klein /> Boito said nothing at the time, but he secretly began work on a libretto based on ''[[The Merry Wives of Windsor]]'' with additional material taken from ''Henry IV'', parts [[Henry IV, Part 1|1]] and [[Henry IV, Part 2|2]].<ref name=klein /> Many composers had set the play to music, with little success, among them [[Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf]] (1796), [[Antonio Salieri]] ([[Falstaff (Salieri)|1799]]), [[Michael William Balfe]] (1835) and [[Adolphe Adam]] (1856).<ref>Melchiori, pp. 90–91</ref> The first version to secure a place in the operatic repertoire was [[Otto Nicolai]]'s ''[[The Merry Wives of Windsor (opera)|The Merry Wives of Windsor]]'' in 1849, but its success was largely confined to German opera houses.<ref>Rice, John A. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/O901546 "Falstaff (i)"], and Brown, Clive. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/O009159 "Lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Die"], ''[[The New Grove Dictionary of Opera]]'', Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2 March 2014 {{subscription required}}</ref>

Boito was doubly pleased with ''The Merry Wives'' as a plot. Not only was it Shakespearian, it was based in part on [[Trecento]] Italian works – ''[[Il Pecorone]]'' by Ser [[Giovanni Fiorentino]], and [[Boccaccio]]'s ''[[Decameron]]''. Boito adopted a deliberately archaic form of Italian to "lead Shakespeare's farce back to its clear Tuscan source", as he put it.<ref name=hso>Porter, Andrew. "Roll Up! Here We Come Again!", programme booklet, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 6 December 1999, pp. 10–14</ref> He trimmed the plot, halved the number of characters in the play,{{refn|Boito eliminated the characters Master George Page, William Page, Justice Shallow, Slender, Sir Hugh Evans, Nym, Peter Simple and John Rugby. He turned Fenton into a conventional juvenile lead, rather than Shakespeare's less romantic and more mercenary character. Mistress Quickly became simply a neighbour of the Fords and Pages, rather than Caius's servant.<ref name=hso /> Subplots involving these characters were cut, including Caius's discovery of Simple in his closet (I.iv), his duel with Evans (III.i), William's Latin lesson (IV.i), and the theft of a German duke's horses (IV.v).<ref>Hepokoski, p. 26</ref>|group=n}} and gave the character of [[Falstaff]] more depth by incorporating dozens of passages from ''Henry IV''.<ref name=hso />{{refn|There is a tradition that Shakespeare wrote ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' at the command of [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]], who expressed a wish to see "Sir John in Love".<ref name=rowse>Rowse, p. 444</ref> The character was familiar to Elizabethan audiences from both parts of ''Henry IV'' and there was disappointment when Shakespeare omitted him from ''[[Henry V (play)|Henry V]]''.<ref name=rowse /> ''The Merry Wives'' was written in haste, and most critics in the 18th century and afterwards found the character of Falstaff crudely drawn by comparison with the more ambiguous figure in the two earlier plays. In 1744 [[Corbyn Morris]] wrote that in ''The Merry Wives'', Falstaff is "in general greatly below his true character".<ref>Vickers, p. 122</ref> In later studies of the character by [[Maurice Morgann]] (1777) and William Richardson (1789) the Falstaff of ''The Merry Wives'' is almost completely ignored.<ref name=m89>Melchiori, p. 89</ref> After Boito's time many critics continued to share the views of Morris and his successors; [[John Dover Wilson]] (1953) was dismissive,<ref name=m89 /> and [[W. H. Auden|W H Auden]] called ''The Merry Wives'' "Shakespeare's worst play".<ref name=rowse/> [[A. L. Rowse|A L Rowse]] (1978) took a more favourable view: "It is the same old reprobate, with the same virtuosity of language in recounting his misadventures as that with which he had regaled Prince Hal."<ref name=rowse />|group=n}}

Verdi received the draft libretto a few weeks later, by early July 1889, at a time when his interest had been piqued by reading Shakespeare's play: "Benissimo! Benissimo!&nbsp;... No one could have done better than you", he wrote back.<ref name=PM700>Verdi to Boito, 6 and 7 July 1889, in Phillips-Matz 1993, p. 700. (punctuation used here are as in the book)</ref> Like Boito, Verdi loved and revered Shakespeare. The composer did not speak English, but he owned and frequently re-read Shakespeare's plays in Italian translations by [[Carlo Rusconi]] and {{ill|Giulio Carcano|it}}, which he kept by his bedside.<ref name=gallo />{{refn|The house, near [[Busseto]], remains in the possession of the Verdi family. The composer's rooms are preserved intact and are open to the public. Verdi's volumes of Shakespeare remain by his bedside.<ref name=gallo>Gallo, Denise (2010). "Repatriating 'Falstaff': Boito, Verdi and Shakespeare (in Translation)", ''Nineteenth-Century Music Review'', November 2010, pp. 7–34</ref>|group=n}} He had earlier set operatic adaptations of Shakespeare's ''[[Macbeth]]'' (in 1847) and ''[[Othello]]'' (in 1887) and had considered ''[[King Lear]]'' as a subject; Boito had suggested ''[[Antony and Cleopatra]]''.<ref>Steen, p. 453</ref>

{{Quote box |quoted=true |bgcolor=#F6CED8 |salign=right| quote = What a joy! To be able to say to the Audience: "We are here again!! Come and see us!!"| source = Verdi to Boito, 8 July 1889<ref name=PM700 />|align=right| width=250px}}
Verdi still had doubts, and on the next day sent another letter to Boito expressing his concerns. He wrote of "the large number of years" in his age, his health (which he admitted was still good) and his ability to complete the project: "if I were not to finish the music?" He said that the project could all be a waste of the younger man's time and distract Boito from completing his own new opera (which became ''[[Nerone (Boito)|Nerone]]'').<ref name=PM700 /> Yet, as his biographer [[Mary Jane Phillips-Matz]] notes, "Verdi could not hide his delight at the idea of writing another opera". On 10 July 1889 he wrote again:
{{blockquote|Amen; so be it! So let's do ''Falstaff''! For now, let's not think of obstacles, of age, of illnesses! I also want to keep the deepest ''secrecy'': a word that I underline three times to you that no one must know anything about it! [He notes that his wife will know about it, but assures Boito that she can keep a secret.] Anyway, if you are in the mood, then start to write.<ref>Verdi to Boito, 10 July 1889, in Phillips-Matz, pp. 700–701</ref>|}}