Recorded live at Glyndebourne Opera House, Lewes, East Sussex, June 2009.
Christopher Purves (Falstaff), Tassis Christoyannis (Ford), Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Mistress Quickly), Dina Kuznetsova (Alice Ford), Jennifer Holloway (Meg Page), Adriana Kucerova (Nanetta), Bulent Bezduz (Fenton), Peter Hall (Dr Caius), Alasdair Elliott (Bardolpho), Paolo Battaglia (Pistol)
The inspirational Vladimir Jurowski conducts Verdi’s last opera, his only true comic opera. An international cast is led by Christopher Purves in the larger-than-life role of the corpulent Falstaff, whose profligacy both outrages and inspires the citizens of Windsor. Richard Jones’s production brings out the humour, bitterness and anger – mixed with tenderness and wisdom – embodied in the Shakespeare plays on which the libretto is based. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in true surround sound.
‘In the pit, Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic hone their reflexes so that the instrumental guffaw, exclamation, explosive flourish leaps out at you. It’s exciting and detailed and rhythmically so alive.’ The Independent
Extra features:
Illustrated synopsis
Cast gallery
Running time 136mins
Region code All regions
Picture format 16:9
Anamorphic Sound format 2.0 PCM & 5.1 DTS
Menu language EN
Subtitles EN/FR/DE/ES/IT
May 2010
*****
“[Purves's Falstaff is] a masterpiece of comic timing. But this performance is also beautifully sung, capturing the Italianate ardour within the bosom of Windsor's beached whale...Francois Roussillon's direction, giving a due flavour of the theatrical ambience, results in a model of filmed opera.”
May 2010
“all aspects of staging [...] work to happy effect. The updating [...] is unexpectedly refreshing...The cast is uniformly excellent, with Christopher Purves's Falstaff much funnier than most...Jurowski conducts so as to bring out all the score's energy and wit without forcing the pace or underlining the jokes.”
Click here for alternative recordings of this work.
