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Home , Aage Haugland, Ambrogio Maestri, Arrigo Boito, Eleonora Buratto, Emma Eames, Falstaff (opera)

PROGRAM

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FIFTH SEASON Chicago Zell Director Yo-Yo Ma Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Global Sponsor of the CSO

Thursday, April 21, 2016, at 8:00 Saturday, April 23, 2016, at 8:00 Tuesday, April 26, 2016, at 7:30

Falstaff, Lyric comedy in three acts Music by by , after ’s The Merry Wives of Windsor and parts of Henry IV

Riccardo Muti Conductor

CAST Sir John ...... Ford, husband of Alice...... Luca Salsi baritone Fenton...... Doctor Caius...... Saverio Fiore tenor Bardolfo, follower of Falstaff...... Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani tenor Pistola, follower of Falstaff...... Luca Dall’Amico Mrs. Alice Ford...... Nannetta, daughter of Alice and Ford...... soprano Mrs. Quickly...... Daniela Barcellona mezzo-soprano Mrs. Meg Page...... Laura Polverelli mezzo-soprano Burghers and street-folk; Ford’s servants; of devils, sprites, fairies, and witches Duain Wolfe Director

(continued) Falstaff, Lyric comedy in three acts Music by Giuseppe Verdi Libretto by Arrigo Boito, after William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor and parts of Henry IV

Act 1 Part 1 Garter Inn Part 2 A garden

INTERMISSION

Act 2 Part 1 Garter Inn Part 2 Ford’s house

INTERMISSION

Act 3 Part 1 A square Part 2 Windsor Park

The action takes place in Windsor during the reign of King Henry IV of England

These concerts are made possible by a generous gift from the Zell Family Foundation. The appearance of the soloists is made possible by a generous gift from Pam and Roger Hull. The appearance of the Chicago Symphony Chorus is made possible by a generous gift from Jim and Kay Mabie. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. CSO Tuesday series concerts are sponsored by United Airlines. English supertitles © 2007 by Sonya Friedman SuperTitle System by DIGITAL TECH SERVICES, LLC, Portsmouth, VA This program is part of the citywide Shakespeare 400 Celebration.

2 COMMENTS by Phillip Huscher

Giuseppe Verdi Born October 10, 1813, Le Roncole, near , . Died January 27, 1901, , Italy. Falstaff, Lyric comedy in three acts

“The great event has rumors that go with the territory of being a happened,” began a genuine celebrity, and Verdi was certainly as special cable from Milan, famous as any living musician. Later, when Italy, that ran in the Arrigo Boito, Verdi’s brilliant librettist, proposed Chicago Tribune on that it was time for the two of them to set to February 10, work on a new Shakespeare , and suggested 1893. “Falstaff was they tackle , Verdi’s wife Giuseppina performed this evening pulled Boito aside. “For Heaven’s sake,” she and all the world has said. “Verdi is too old, too tired.” entered into possession of Verdi had been worried that he might not live the new opera. Not even the production of to finish Falstaff since the day he and Boito first was received with interest so great as now.” The discussed the possibility of a new opera to follow premiere of Verdi’s new opera made the extraordinary success of their Otello in 1887. headlines around the world, and Chicago, like As soon as he received Boito’s first draft of the other major music centers, was eager to know text, in June 1889, he fired back: “In sketching what the great had unveiled in his Falstaff, did you ever consider the extreme eightieth year. Falstaff was described as Verdi’s number of my years?” (He was seventy-five at latest opera, not his last, because no one knew for the time.) It would be rash, he said, for him to certain what he still had up his sleeve beyond the undertake such a project. It might turn out to be miracle of this new masterpiece. In fact, the week a waste of Boito’s time. “Suppose I couldn’t stand of the Chicago Falstaff premiere, local papers the strain and was unable to finish it?” But clearly reported that Verdi was writing a new opera for Verdi was excited by the idea of working with his Falstaff, , and then a week later Boito again—to warm up, he had already reread that Verdi had begun work on an opera based on the Shakespeare plays in which Falstaff appears: King Lear. Both were the kind of suspicious The Merry Wives of Windsor; Henry IV, parts 1 and

COMPOSED Hillis, director); Sir INSTRUMENTATION 1889–92 (complete opera) three and piccolo, two and english , two April 29, 1985, . FIRST PERFORMANCE and bass , two , Guillermo Sarabia, , February 9, 1893; Teatro alla Scala, four horns, three , three Yordi Ramiro, , Francis Milan, Italy. The composer conducting and bass , Egerton, , Katia , triangle, , , Ricciarelli, , Christa FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES harp, strings; plus offstage , Ludwig, and Ann Murray, as soloists; August 3, 1976, Ravinia Festival. horn, and chime Chicago Symphony Chorus (Margaret as soloist, Sarah Hillis, director); Sir Georg Solti Caldwell conducting (“L’onore! Ladri!” APPROXIMATE conducting (complete opera) and “Mondo ladro”) PERFORMANCE TIME Act 1: 32 minutes April 25, 26 & 27, 1985, Orchestra MOST RECENT Act 2: 46 minutes Hall. Guillermo Sarabia, Wolfgang CSO PERFORMANCES Act 3: 50 minutes Brendel, Yordi Ramiro, Heinz Zednik, July 11, 1998, Ravinia Festival. Francis Egerton, Aage Haugland, Katia Kathleen Battle as soloist, Christoph Ricciarelli, Kathleen Battle, Christa Eschenbach conducting (“Sul fil d’un Ludwig, and Ann Murray, as soloists; soffio etesio”) Chicago Symphony Chorus (Margaret

3 2; and . Verdi had wanted to write a new it is difficult to believe that Verdi would have for forty years. (Of his more than missed the Italian premiere of Die Meistersinger two dozen , only one—his second, the at La Scala in 1889, just as he was throwing him- ill-fated , written nearly a half self into work on his own comic opera—and the century earlier—was a comedy.) “And I’ve known dazzling ensemble at the end of Verdi’s first act, The Merry Wives of Windsor for fifty,” he said at with its tenor melody floating above the general the time. “A smile adds a thread to life’s tapes- mayhem, argues persuasively that he was there. “I try,” was all that Boito needed to say, quoting don’t think that writing a comedy should tire you Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey, out,” Boito had told Verdi early to refute Verdi’s anxieties. in their discussions. “A tragedy Verdi’s apprehension was causes its author genuinely to not unfounded. Few major suffer . . . The jokes and laugh- before him had ter of comedy exhilarate mind lived so long—Haydn died and body.” at seventy-seven, Rameau at Verdi began by sketching a eighty, Cherubini at eighty-one. , just as the opera itself In the months ahead, as Verdi would end with one. “I am began to compose music having a great time writing again, thoughts of aging and !” he told Boito over the death were never far from summer of 1889. The librettist his mind. “When we are assured Verdi that a comic young,” he wrote to Teresa fugue perfectly matched the Stolz, the soprano who sang spirit of their new opera and in the premiere of Verdi’s Boito and Verdi in the garden of that they would find a place to , “everything is pleas- ’s residence in Milan, put it. Verdi probably already ant, we are carefree, imperti- photograph by Achille Ferrario, had the final scene of Mozart’s nent, proud, and it seems that 1892. Archivo Storico Ricordi © in the back of his Ricordi & C.S.r.l. Milano the world should exist just for mind, with its for us. When we are old . . . But the main roles, and that is ulti- never mind these miseries.” Over the course of mately what happens at the end of Falstaff. But the three years that were devoted to Falstaff, Verdi these fugal exercises were just a clearing of the learned that several of his lifelong friends and throat—a way for Verdi to assure himself that his dearest colleagues were seriously ill and dying. technical skills were still in good working order. Often he was too disturbed to write music at all. In the fall of 1889, Boito delivered the text for the first two acts to Verdi. They spent a week or he late nineteenth century was not prime so together, sharing ideas, and talking through time for comedy. “Wherever we look we the work that lay ahead. Once Verdi began to see only disasters of every sort—crimes, compose in earnest, his progress was erratic, with suicides,T and murders,” Eduard Hanslick, the surges of activity alternating with dry spells. Verdi world-famous critic, wrote only months before didn’t work entirely in sequence, as was his normal the premiere of Falstaff—words that still ring method, but jumped from scene to scene. When true today. “Where, amidst this universal sad- his friends asked how it was going, he invariably ness, is to be found hearty comic operatic music?” deflected the question, giving differing accounts to Verdi had made an entire career—as long and different people, and sometimes simply saying that rich as any in operatic history—writing tragedies. he was writing purely for the pleasure of it, as if And Rossini had been quoted in the newspapers this important new opera was merely a pastime— saying that Verdi was incapable of treating a as if, in fact, he didn’t care whether he finished it comic subject. But , who took or not. For the first time in fifty years, he said, he himself as seriously as any artist in history, had was composing not for the public, but for himself. created genuine comedy in Die Meistersinger von Verdi and Boito kept Falstaff to themselves Nürnberg. Although there is no documentation, for some time. No one beyond the circle of their

4 closest friends knew. Verdi even had his man- fell into place. The first act was completed in uscript paper shipped from , to cover his April 1892; the second and third were done late tracks. Then, in November 1890, the Corriere that summer. della Sera leaked the news that Verdi was com- Verdi had already begun worrying over his posing a new opera. From then on, all anyone cast before the opera was even finished. Franco wanted to know was when it would be done. Faccio, the conductor he would have most That winter there were more setbacks. Verdi lost desired, had recently died. Verdi agreed to con- two dear friends. “And both were younger than duct the first three performances, as he had often I!!” he wrote to , his favorite done with a new work in the past, and then turn Amneris in . “Everything ends!! Life is a the rest of the run over to another. For a chorus sad thing! . . . And so I have very little desire to master he wanted someone who was subordinate write an opera I have begun but not got very far to the conductor on the one hand, but so invested with. Don’t pay any attention to the newspaper in the performance that, as Verdi suggested, he gossip. Will I finish it? Or will I not finish it? could dress in costume and sing on stage with his Who knows.” chorus. And for each character in the comedy, “We have to begin the year smiling,” Boito he had a laundry list of requirements. He would wrote him that January, to coax him out of his be more demanding than ever in rehearsal, he sorrow. But Verdi was disconsolate. “I am upset warned, because he knew that he was writing a and distracted,” he replied. “The Big Belly,” he new kind of opera, one that required a precise, said, using their code name for their corpu- flexible, and quicksilver vocalism that would not lent title character, “is not moving on.” Verdi come easily—it would “have to be sung differ- wrote to Ricordi, his publisher, that he couldn’t ently from other modern operas,” he said. In the possibly finish the opera in 1891. “When I was end, Falstaff was cast with the finest singers of young, even if I was under the weather, I could the day, many of whom would be the leading stars of the new operas by Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Puccini, and others. Verdi’s Ford would create Schaunard in La bohème; his Nannetta and Fenton would become a popular Mimì and Rodolfo. And Victor Maurel, already a triumphant Tonio in and Verdi’s original in Otello, had from the very beginning been the only singer the composer had in mind for Falstaff.

Painting by production designer Adolf Hohenstein of Verdi (seated at nlike either Verdi’s right) with the original cast during a piano rehearsal of Falstaff, 1893. Otello or , Archivio Storico Ricordi @ Ricordi & C.S.r.l. Milano each of which closely Ufollowed the corresponding stay at my desk for up to ten hours at a stretch,” Shakespeare play, Falstaff is a freshly created he said. “Now I cannot.” Later that spring, work, drawing its material piecemeal from Verdi complained that Falstaff was pale and different Shakespearean sources—The Merry wan. But then slowly, Verdi began to rally—as Wives of Windsor and the two Henry IV plays. did Falstaff. In September 1891, he broke his Boito was determined to “squeeze all the juice usual routine and began orchestrating what from that Shakespearean orange without letting he had already written, even though the opera any of the useless pips fall into the glass”—to was far from finished. Eventually the pieces all cut, streamline, and reshape, in other words. “It

5 is very difficult and it must seem very, very easy.” Boito “created a character never seen before on And since Falstaff himself is quite a different sea or land, inside Shakespeare’s works or outside man in each of the Shakespeare plays, Verdi and them,” as Garry Wills has written. Verdi said

CHICAGO’S FIRST FALSTAFF

In August 1893, six months after the , where she had last appeared. company in and . “The premiere of Verdi’s Falstaff at La Scala Once in Chicago, she canceled a audience is wonderfully quick and in Milan, Italy, the Chicago papers single performance as in appreciative tonight,” he told the reported that the new opera was Verdi’s Otello in order to be ready for Tribune. “They do not seem to miss a likely to be produced in Chicago in the Falstaff premiere. (The Chicago point and are entering into the spirit 1894. But despite the high level of Orchestra, in the closing weeks of its of it all so thoroughly. It is a pleasure curiosity about the work, it was not fourth season, was playing a concert for the singers to have their work so staged in Chicago that year. The next in East Saginaw, Michigan, the night intelligently received.” season, the gave of the Falstaff premiere, as part of a A very young Willa Cather, a the U.S. premiere on February 4, 1895, thirty-six city regional tour in honor decade before she first gained great and the Chicago premiere of Falstaff of Thomas’s fifty years of service to popularity with her novels O Pioneers!, followed on March 14, given at the American music.) , and My Ántonia, Auditorium Theatre by the Abbey & “Verdi Makes a Hit” was the headline traveled to Chicago to cover the Grau company, with Victor Maurel, on the Chicago Tribune review of performance for the Nebraska State Verdi’s original Falstaff, in the title role. the Falstaff performance, with the Journal, where her earliest writings Another famous singer and Chicago subtitle “Great Interest Manifested were regularly published. “There is in the Master’s Latest something especially wonderful and Work.” Nonetheless, the sacred about any great masterpiece Tribune reported that the in its first youth,” she wrote, “before its audience response was romanzas have become street music, somewhat muted. “It was before the concoctors of comic opera not a performance to call have stolen the choruses, while it is forth great enthusiasm; played by the first cast, and the ink of rather one for smiling the score is scarcely dry.” Cather was a approval.” Eames did great lover of opera—Thea Kronberg appear, although in The Song of the Lark is one of the she was announced great fictional opera singers—and she as “consenting to sing to brought all of her customary insight oblige the management.” and sensitivity to her early newspaper The Tribune reported work. “Something of the very that she “was not at all in personality of the composer seems to good voice,” and found cling to it,” she continued. her acting stiff. Although the subtlety and detail Its bloom, its freshness, the of Maurel’s Falstaff wonderful charm of its novelty, tended to evaporate even the slight uncertainty with in the vast spaces of which some of the principals the Auditorium, “his carry their parts, all emphasize portrayal was a work that one is witnessing an of eminent art.” After absolutely new creation, a new Aubrey Beardsley’s illustration that accompa- his “inimical” singing work that did not exist yesterday, nied the March 5, 1893, Chicago Tribune review of “Quand’ ero paggio,” that has been called up out of of the Falstaff premiere. three encores were nothingness and that henceforth demanded. “There will be a part of the art of the favorite, the American soprano was much curiosity in musical circles world. On such an occasion one , sang Alice Ford. (In to hear the heralded work,” wrote feels dimly what it must be to addition to her operatic appearances another reporter, “and there were create, to dream and to send out in Chicago, Eames had sung Mozart many listeners who followed the of one’s dreams golden song that and Schubert with music director music with their fingers on the score.” shall be immortal. Theodore Thomas and the Chicago Among those was the great tenor Jean Orchestra in May 1894.) Eames had de Reszke, who had sung both Otello arrived in Chicago earlier in the week and Radames in Chicago and had feeling ill—she blamed the air in returned to appear with the touring Phillip Huscher

6 simply that Boito had written “a lyric comedy postscript about reputation, tradition, quite unlike any other.” , and Riccardo Muti. The score of Falstaff is an anomaly in Verdi’s Following the original La Scala output. Unlike Otello, Verdi’s other late-career productionA (a run of twenty-two performances) masterpiece, written just six years earlier, it and a subsequent tour (to Genoa, Rome, , is an ensemble opera from beginning to end, Trieste, , and Berlin), Falstaffbegan to with nothing that resembles a conventional make the rounds of the world’s most important aria or duet, and offering no star turns in the opera houses very quickly—from spotlight. Boito insisted that even the young and Mexico City to Prague (in Czech), Hamburg lovers, Nannetta and Fenton, should not have (under the baton of Gustav ), and Saint a duet. Their love, he said, should be “as sugar Petersburg (in Russian), before moving on to Paris is sprinkled on a cake, to sprinkle the whole and and finally to the in comedy with their merry love without accu- 1895, beginning in City and Chicago. mulating it at any point.” Only Falstaff’s tiny [see sidebar, page 6] Yet, for all its triumphs, monologue, “Quand’ ero paggio,” which lasts Falstaffdid not easily achieve the immediate little more than thirty seconds, has often been audience appeal of Verdi’s earlier masterpieces, extracted by to stand on its own. (It even in Italy. “Falstaff is a fiasco! Really, a genuine was regularly encored in Verdi’s day. Victor fiasco,” Verdi wrote in a panic in December Maurel, Verdi’s original Falstaff as well as 1894. “Nobody is going to the theater! The best the lead in both the Metropolitan Opera and part is that they are saying they have never heard Chicago premieres in 1895, made a recording of an opera so perfectly performed and coordinated. it in 1907, singing it in Italian and then again, So we must conclude that the music is accursed!” incongruously, in French—six years after the It was left to the young conductor Arturo composer’s death.) Toscanini to turn the public’s opinion around, and Falstaff proceeds as one seamless tapestry of to reveal for once and all the incomparable mastery ideas, a profusion of melodic abundance and bril- of Verdi’s last operatic score. (Toscanini had played liant orchestral effects unmatched in any other in the orchestra at the Otello premiere; he and single opera—there is enough raw material here Verdi became well acquainted and conferred over for a lifetime of writing operas. Verdi’s creative many details in Verdi’s scores.) When Toscanini resources had never been more fertile, and he was appointed music director of La Scala in 1898, tosses off his astonishments as if the supply were his opening season pointedly juxtaposed Wagner’s endless. The wealth of his musical-dramatic gift Die Meistersinger and Verdi’s Falstaff—the two is everywhere apparent, in the tiniest of details great comic masterpieces of the era. For the next and in broad strokes—in the counterpoint of the half century, Toscanini was regularly identified feigned love music for Falstaff and Alice against with Verdi’s score. (His two recordings, the first the real love music for Fenton and Nannetta in made in Salzburg in 1937, the second a studio act 2, the universal trilling that courses through recording from 1950, made after six weeks of daily the entire orchestra as Falstaff begins to drink his six-hour rehearsals, are widely considered among wine in the opening of act 3, the astonishingly the triumphs of recorded music). In 1913, the cen- modern progression of twelve chords under- tenary of Verdi’s birth, Toscanini presented Falstaff lining the chimes of midnight in the magical in the tiny theater of Busseto, near Verdi’s beloved final scene—an effect since imitated but never home, Sant’Agata. In 2001, the 100th anniversary equaled. And, finally, after so much dazzling of Verdi’s death, Riccardo Muti conducted the invention, all of it woven together with an opera there, with Abrogio Maestri—our Falstaff uncanny sense of the grand narrative arc, in one in Chicago this week—whom he had handpicked scene after another, at last comes the fugue—the and intensively coached for the title role, and fugue that in a sense started it all. Beginning recreating the sets and costumes Toscanini had with Falstaff, each of the opera’s ten characters, used nearly a century before. one by one, joins the uproarious, life-affirming fugue that brings down the curtain on one of Phillip Huscher has been the program annotator for the opera’s greatest careers. Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1987.

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