NPR World of Opera: Falstaff, by Giuseppe Verdi

Here's a little exercise: Try to think of a great work of narrative art - say a play, or a book, or a movie - that's been successfully converted to a another form or narrative art. Not easy, is it?

There are lots of less than immortal books and plays that have made good movies, and plenty of nearly forgotten stageplays that have become successful operas. But what about truly great books that have become great movies? Or immortal plays that have moved triumphantly to the opera house? There haven't been many.

That reality makes one of Giuseppe Verdi's many creative accomplishments seem nearly miraculous. Over the centuries, there have been more nearly 400 attempts to turn Shakespeare's plays into operas. How many times has it resulted in a truly successful opera? Maybe five or six, and that's being generous.

What's remarkable about Verdi is this: Of that half-dozen or so successful Shakespeare operas, Verdi wrote three of them - Macbeth, Otello, and the one we'll hear today, Falstaff. Then again, the achievement may be astounding without being surprising. Perhaps, to translate Shakespeare into opera, it takes a composer with a Shakespearian level of creativity, and artistic insight. And how many of those have there been?

Of course, Verdi's genius for transforming Shakespeare is only one of the many reasons for tuning in a performance of Falstaff, which many feel is Verdi's greatest opera.

This week on NPR World of Opera, with host Steve Curwood, we've got another reason: a fine production of Falstaff from the National Theater in Munich - the Bayrisher Staatsoper. (And for more on the opera, tune in half-an-hour early, for NPR's At the Opera, with Lou Santacroce.)

LINKS:

Libretto for Falstaff, in Italian
More on Verdi and his works
At the Opera
NPR World of Opera COMING NEXT WEEK: Platée by Jean Philippe Rameau: Platee