“The whole world is a jest, man was born a great jester…” So goes the brilliant conclusion to Verdi’s Falstaff, an opera inspired by Shakespeare’s beloved comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor. The virtuosic score requires a particularly talented cast, not to mention a truly exceptional conductor. Herbert von Karajan perfectly fits the bill, and this performance featuring the Wiener Philharmoniker and an all-star group of singers is clearly worthy of Verdi’s powerful work, a masterpiece whose comic facade thinly veils the complex and sometimes even tragic characters’ struggles.
Don Carlos
Considered one of Verdi’s most challenging works, Don Carlos gets the royal treatment in this production at the Salzburg Festival directed by Herbert von Karajan. Verdi’s opera demands soloists of incredible technical ability who are also capable of communicating their character’s struggles with exceptional expressiveness. Inspired by Schiller’s eponymous historical tragedy, Don Carlos explores the conflicts between 16th-century European society and the heavy-handed political influence of the Catholic Church, as well as the roles of liberty and religion in the life of modern man.