Falstaff

After an unparalleled succession of tragic operas, Verdi finished his operatic career with a comedy. It has a thread of intriguing musical cross- references and a great richness of musical resource, as well as subtle delineation of character. It has enchanting love-music, too; but it is the depiction of Falstaff himself and the web of conspiracy round him that gives the opera its chief celebrity. Verdi's congenial librettist Arrigo Boito created a sparkling adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor" and "Henry IV". "Falstaff" was premiered in Milan in 1893.