Falstaff

Why it is worth going

A new production, and the first staging in Italy by the German director Tatjana Gürbaca, whose work has been seen in Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam and Zurich.¹ She sets the opera in a dreamlike, half-abandoned version of the Grand Hotel et de Milan, where Verdi lived in his last years and wrote the piece.¹ Michele Mariotti, the house's music director, conducts it before an audience for the first time; his Munich Falstaff in December 2020 was streamed to an empty hall.¹ Luca Salsi, who has sung the title role at the Vienna Staatsoper and the Liceu, leads a cast with Maria Agresta as Alice, George Petean as Ford, Violeta Urmana as Quickly and Marina Monzò as Nannetta.¹ The premiere on 11 October is broadcast live on Radio3; the last performance, on 1 November, goes out live on Rai3.¹