Falstaff (Dover Vocal Scores) [Paperback]

Giuseppe Verdi (Author), Opera and Choral Scores (Author)

Book Description

Series: Dover Vocal Scores | Publication Date: August 1, 1980

Verdi's last great work and his first and only comedy. Complete unabridged score from original Ricordi edition

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Verdi wrote only two comic operas in his long career: at the very beginning and at the very end. Nobody remembers the first one, but Falstaff belongs on any list of the ten best operas ever written, with its humor both broad and sly, its loving realization of Shakespeare's characters (most of the opera is taken from The Merry Wives of Windsor, and it's actually funnier in Verdi's version) and, most of all, its deep humanity. Listen for the sarcasm in the orchestra underneath Dame Quickly's salutations and check out how Verdi made the Thames splash when Sir John is emptied from the window. As is always the case with Dover scores, Falstaff is a reprint of another publishing house's work, without English translations.

Language Notes

Text: English, Italian --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (August 1, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486240177
• ISBN-13: 978-0486240176
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #637,410 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #30 in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > Theory, Composition & Performance > Sheet Music & Scores > Composers > Verdi

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Verdi isn't all that funny, July 17, 2000

By 

Keith Dillon - See all my reviews

This review is from: Falstaff (Dover Vocal Scores) (Paperback)

Verdi's two Comedies philosophically, and emotionally, frame his long career. While writing Il Giorno di Regno, his first comedy, and only his second opera, the rather naive young Verdi lost his first wife and their children in a fire. Needless to say, the opera wasn't very funny, and the audience booed it off the stage. Verdi quit Opera...he thought for good. However, his self-imposed exile didn't last long, and Verdi eventually wrote several of Opera's greatest masterpieces. He also loved Giuseppina, first as his paramour, eventually as his second wife, became one of Europe's most generous philanthropists, and admired his great rival Richard Wagner, who referred to Verdi simply as "pig." Arrigo Boito, a genius in his own right (if you don't believe it, get a good recording of Mefistofele), testified in Italian newspapers that Verdi's "old ways" of writing Opera were permanently invalidated by Wagner. Yet one day, eight years after Verdi had retired for the second time, Boito, the great Verdi hater, came to Sant' Agata, hat in hand, to ask Verdi to compose music for two Shakespearean music dramas he had written. The second of those music dramas, Falstaff, was to be Verdi's second comedy, and his last opera. Falstaff is a towering monument to artistic collaboration. In it, Verdi, Boito, and Shakespeare tell us that life is a great cosmic joke, and, since we cannot escape being its brunt, we might as well laugh along. Dover republished an early Ricordi edition of Falstaff. Ricordi is, simply put, the most useful publisher of late romantic Italian opera, especially of Verdi and Puccini. The scholarship is top notch, making this Dover edition quite a useful volume. The book itself is, as always, well crafted and easy to read. The score may be too large, and the book too small, to make this volume useful for the podium, but at home, in front of the stereo, it's invaluable. Falstaff is one of the west's great example's of existentialism expressed in artistic form. If you are not familiar with this opera, I strongly recommend you buy this score, and a good recording to go with it, and knock yourself out.