VIDEO: Get A First Look At The Met Opera's FALSTAFF

Watch highlights from the Met Opera's production of Falstaff, now on stage through April 1st. Verdi's glorious Shakespearean comedy features a brilliant ensemble cast in Robert Carsen's celebrated staging. Baritone Michael Volle sings his first Verdi role at the Met as the caddish knight Falstaff, gleefully tormented by a trio of clever women who deliver his comeuppance.

Reuniting after their acclaimed turns in the production's 2019 run are soprano Ailyn Pérez as Alice Ford, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano as Meg Page, and contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux as Mistress Quickly. Soprano Hera Hyesang Park and tenor Bogdan Volkov are the young couple Nannetta and Fenton, and Maestro Daniele Rustioni conducts.

A deeply human comedy full of humor and genuine emotion, Verdi's last opera is a splendid finale to an unparalleled career in the theater. The story is an amalgamation of scenes from Shakespeare, primarily drawn from the comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor. It centers on the remarkable personality of Sir John Falstaff, one of literature's most compelling characters. With a supremely well-crafted score, which has long commanded the respect even of Verdi's critics, it is an astounding work and among the greatest operatic comedies of all time.

Falstaff marks a stylistic departure for Verdi and occupies a category of its own, without parallels in the history of the genre. The musical ideas come fast and abundantly, moving from one to the next organically and without discernible breaks. The orchestra carries the story and occasionally makes literal comments on the action. At other times, it represents the overall spirit of the proceedings, such as in the remarkable prelude to Act III, which contains all the sweeping crescendo of a Rossini overture in less than a minute.

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