Falstaff

opera by Verdi

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June 17, 2026

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Falstaff is an opera by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi, with a libretto by Arrigo Boito. It premiered in 1893 and is Verdi's last dramatic work. The opera is a comic masterpiece, an opera buffa with serious undertones, based on Shakespeare's plays The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV.123

The character of Sir John Falstaff, created by William Shakespeare, is a famous comic figure in English literature who appears in four of Shakespeare's plays. Verdi's opera draws from the Falstaff depicted in The Merry Wives of Windsor, a character reduced to an opportunistic and comically unsuccessful seducer. Despite critical acclaim, Falstaff has not achieved the same widespread popularity as some of Verdi's other operas.341

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Giuseppe Verdi
Late years
…into the perfect comic libretto, Falstaff, which Verdi set to miraculously fresh and mercurial music (and this time with fewer delays). This, his last dramatic work, produced at La Scala in 1893, avenged the cruel failure of Verdi’s only other comedy in the same theater half a century earlier.
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…into the perfect comic libretto, Falstaff, which Verdi set to miraculously fresh and mercurial music (and this time with fewer delays). This, his last dramatic work, produced at La Scala in 1893, avenged the cruel failure of Verdi’s only other comedy in the same theater half a century earlier.
Read More

opera
Verdi
…1893, was the comic masterpiece Falstaff (libretto by Boito, derived largely from Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV). An opera buffa with serious overtones, Falstaff always has been praised by critics and enthusiasts, but it has never become a true popular favourite.
Read More
…1893, was the comic masterpiece Falstaff (libretto by Boito, derived largely from Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV). An opera buffa with serious overtones, Falstaff always has been praised by critics and enthusiasts, but it has never become a true popular favourite.
Read More

Christoph Waltz
Branching out in later work
…staged Giuseppe Verdi’s comic opera Falstaff.
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…staged Giuseppe Verdi’s comic opera Falstaff.
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