Sir John Falstaff: Peter Rose Ford: Weston Hurt Alice Ford: Svetla Vassileva Dame Quickly: Stephanie Blythe Nannetta: Anya Matanovic Meg Page: Sasha Cooke Dr. Caius: Doug Jones Bardolph: Steven Goldstein Pistol: Ashraf Sewailam Conductor: Riccardo Frizza Stage Director: Peter Kazaras Lighting Designer: Connie Yun English Captions: Jonathan Dean Sets: Seattle Opera Costumes: Cleveland OperaExcellent acting, singing. Fun super-title. Not so great costums. Minimal stage sets (just desks, chairs and a big basket, called for by lean budget), enhanced by simple lighting (silhouette) and innovation (confetti for water spray, a tree of chair and lights). Director Kazaras introduced some modern staging techniques: actors move the sets around, they dress, undress and eat on stage, curtain never falls, and something I missed before the show.
I went because, during the Tuesday opera lecture at Seattle University, Speight Jenkins claimed that it's the best Falstaff production ever (concurred by other senior opera goers who went to the after show Q&A session). He also urged everyone to spread the good words, because the box office is suffering. According to him, Falstaff always lacks draw to the public, due to 1) no repetitive easily singable tunes, no aria; 2) Verdi wrote for himself, rather than the public, so he employed more innovative techniques which may not appeal to the public; 3) more philosophical than a regular farce.
