Is 'Falstaff' Verdi's Greatest Opera ?

[Operahaven]

Hi ladies and gents,

First, let me say hello as this is my first post here on GMG.

My adoration and love for Verdi's Falstaff knows no bounds. I just never tire of listening to it... Musically, it brings me such intense and endless delight. In my judgment it is his finest opera and his magnum opus. Does anyone here agree ?

Cheers,

Operahaven   

[wagnernn]

For me,the greatest opera of Verdi is Otello.

[Mark G. Simon]

Otello and Falstaff are the two contenders for Verdi's greatest.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Hi ladies and gents,

First, let me say hello as this is my first post here on GMG.

My adoration and love for Verdi's Falstaff knows no bounds. I just never tire of listening to it... Musically, it brings me such intense and endless delight. In my judgment it is his finest opera and his magnum opus. Does anyone here agree ?

Cheers,

Operahaven   

Yes.

[Lilas Pastia]

Hi Operahaven, my love of Falstaff dates back from my youth, but since then I've come to consider Otello his greatest opera. And Aida his most perfect.

But I know better than to argue with a real opera lover .

[Sarastro]

Everyone has his own "finest opera", I mean every opera fan...or maybe the "top 5", top 10, top 100 at last 

[Operahaven]

Yes.

High five my friend !

[Operahaven]

But I know better than to argue with a real opera lover .

Thanks Lilas.

0:)

Verdi's  Falstaff  is one of the gems of Western culture and truly is a connoisseur's opera...

[BachQ]

Forget about Falstaff ....... I want that chocolate cake in your avatar ........ YUMMY!

[Operahaven]

Forget about Falstaff ....... I want that chocolate cake in your avatar ........ YUMMY!

It's from Saint Michel's Patisserie in Teaneck, New Jersey !

[Hector]

Yes.

If only because Verdi admitted that it was the only opera he enjoyed writing.

So, it was his favourite, too, and what's good enough for Verdi is good enough for me

Although one might have a sneaky liking for Don Carlo(s) and Simon Boccanegra

[knight66]

I don't think he wrote anything better, but it is not my favourite. Otello, Aida or Don Carlos get more of my airtime. I think of Verdi as being quintessentially a composer of highly dramatic operas. Falstaff is atypical. But I agree Falstaff is as good as it gets.

Having written that; I think I will give my Abbado version a spin right now.

Mike

[Operahaven]

Having written that; I think I will give my Abbado version a spin right now.

Mike

Excellent choice.   

Abbado, Terfel, Hampson, Roschmann and Pieczonka are in top form here.

[M forever]

Otello is the only Verdi opera which has an extended double bass group solo. Therefore, it must obviously be his greatest opera. In fact, since it is the most extended in the repertoire, by definition this makes Otello the greatest opera ever written - apart from Kaputnikov's "Misha the Steelworker and Hero of the Workforce" for boy sopranos, steel worker's tools and double basses. However, this does not count because a) it is not really an opera, but a semi-staged oratorio; b) it was actually written for full orchestra but Kaputnikov accidentally burned all the other parts when he needed fuel for his oven; c) the work was only performed once, in 1928 in the Siberian Steelworkers' Soviet Cultural Club in Yakutsk, and not even in its entirety then because the amateur singers which performed the opera (all of them steelworkers, of course) got tired of singing in the falsetto register and decided to get drunk instead and d) unlike Otello, it doesn't have any people murdering their girlfriends in it (although in Act III of "Misha", one of the steelworkers accidentally runs over his fiancée with a truck).

[karlhenning]

(although in Act III of "Misha", one of the steelworkers accidentally runs over his fiancée with a truck)

Yes, who could ever forget the poignant aria, "O Fatal Tread!"

[Sarastro]

Otello is the only Verdi opera which has an extended double bass group solo. Therefore, it must obviously be his greatest opera. In fact, since it is the most extended in the repertoire, by definition this makes Otello the greatest opera ever written - apart from Kaputnikov's "Misha the Steelworker and Hero of the Workforce" for boy sopranos, steel worker's tools and double basses. However, this does not count because a) it is not really an opera, but a semi-staged oratorio; b) it was actually written for full orchestra but Kaputnikov accidentally burned all the other parts when he needed fuel for his oven; c) the work was only performed once, in 1928 in the Siberian Steelworkers' Soviet Cultural Club in Yakutsk, and not even in its entirety then because the amateur singers which performed the opera (all of them steelworkers, of course) got tired of singing in the falsetto register and decided to get drunk instead and d) unlike Otello, it doesn't have any people murdering their girlfriends in it (although in Act III of "Misha", one of the steelworkers accidentally runs over his fiancée with a truck).

Wow 

[Operahaven]

Wow 

Relax Sarastro.... M Forever's post is what we call irony.

[(poco) Sforzando]

It's from Saint Michel's Patisserie in Teaneck, New Jersey !

http://offthebroiler.wordpress.com/2007/07/14/nj-dining-patisserie-st-michel/

Vaut le voyage.

[Operahaven]

http://offthebroiler.wordpress.com/2007/07/14/nj-dining-patisserie-st-michel/

Vaut le voyage.

That's it my friend!

And I live right around the corner... 

[Todd]

Yes.