FALSTAFF • STAATSOPER HAMBORG
★★★★☆☆
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
REVIEW FALSTAFF: DRUNKEN UNCLE HUMOUR WITH A SHARP EDGE
Star director Calixto Bieto’s Hamburg production of Falstaff is full of tempo, comedy and cheerful ensemble playing, but impresses most with its musical qualities in Verdi’s late masterpiece.
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
The esteemed German Wagner baritone Wolfgang Koch is brilliant in the role of the degenerate officer Falstaff, but it is mezzo-soprano Kristina Stabek who steals the show in the role of Mrs. Quickly, who acts as a kind of fixer for the development of the intrigues, not unlike Figaro’s role in The Barber.
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Stabek’s wonderful mezzo glows with warm mahogany, and she can also be seen in May 2026 as Charlotte in Christof Loy’s production of Werther at the Liceau in Barcelona, which could definitely be worth a trip.
Falstaff is cut like a kind of slice of life story in an English provincial town, where the action unfolds in and around a shabby local pub, from where the drunken, former gentleman Falstaff struggles to orchestrate the plan that will secure him the favour of wealthy women and a comfortable life as a pensioner.
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
Falstaff sends identical love letters to two wealthy ladies, which are intended to result in both amorous and financial success. The devious plan is, of course, revealed, and the rest of the somewhat slapstick plot is spent teaching Falstaff a lesson. The antics sweep across the stage, driven by complications, disguises and a slightly outdated brand of uncle humour in classic opera buffa style.
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
As a narrative trick, the pub is slowly deconstructed as the action progresses, with the outer walls, upper floor, interior walls and furnishings being removed bit by bit, leaving the building as a bare skeleton of supporting pillars, which paints a picture of how Falstaff himself is stripped bare and humiliated for his sins. The fat must sweat, as the ladies’ campaign banner can be “substituted” for.
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
Director Bieto, the enfant terrible of opera, has staged the performance as a satirical exhibition of vulgar, capitalist excess, with the title character portrayed as an ugly, brutal cynic. The critical undertone adds an updated layer to the rather harmless comedy of the original, which is refreshing on the one hand and, on the other, a perhaps inappropriate, slightly too insistent postulate.
The Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg delivers a razor-sharp musical performance of Verdi’s sophisticated score under the baton of conductor Valerio Galli.
Four stars from GOT TO SEE THS.
