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I hadn't seen Falstaff before (or at least I don't remember seeing it). I was floored by what I will describe as the surreal treatment of Act III. Do all productions have this "other worldly" flavor that Carsen's does? I thought the way the words and philosophical ideas (absurdity of life, and especially how serious we all seem to so often take ourselves) was superbly handled with this "un"-real treatment.

Musically, that fugue at the end simply sent me to the moon. I thought it one of the single most amazing pieces of singing I have ever heard. And to think Verdi wrote this "flip-the-bird" to all of us humans at the very end of his life (80 years old I think) blows me away. What a mind and life-force he must have had!

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Signor Verdi was a "flip-the-bird" kind of guy.

I loved "Falstaff." Maestri is Falstaff.

I hadn't noticed before how much the end of "Falstaff" resembles the end of "Don Giovanni" before. In the earlier opera, Don Giovanni is dragged to hell, and when the complete version is done -- the production I saw in Tallinn left out the final scene -- the characters are trying to decide what to do next, and they don't understand how much they relied upon Don Giovanni as a life force and to give purpose to their lives, if only to avoid him. Suddenly, he's gone, and the world is missing something. In "Falstaff," Sir John tells them all directly, and, of course, he doesn't die, but the idea that a larger-than-life character, for good or worse, attracts and enriches the world, is similar, however much trouble he causes.

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I hadn't seen Falstaff before (or at least I don't remember seeing it). I was floored by what I will describe as the surreal treatment of Act III. Do all productions have this "other worldly" flavor that Carsen's does? I thought the way the words and philosophical ideas (absurdity of life, and especially how serious we all seem to so often take ourselves) was superbly handled with this "un"-real treatment.

Musically, that fugue at the end simply send me to the moon. I thought it one of the single most amazing pieces of singing I have ever heard. And to think Verdi wrote this "flip-the-bird" to all of us humans at the very end of his life (80 years old I think) blows me away. What a mind and life-force he must have had!

Totally agree. I loved the whole production, and all the performers were aces. That last fugue was indeed mind blowing. Go Verdi

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