Falstaff

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) & London Philharmonic Orchestra & The Glyndebourne Chorus, Vladimir Jurowski (conductor) & Richard Jones (director)

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. 

Verdi:
 Falstaff

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

"[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."
BBC Music Magazine - 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."
Gramophone Magazine - May 2010