.PAGE - 8
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
SUNDAY. FEBRUARY, 271, - 1955
VERDI'S OPERA TO BE GIVEN:
By D
A PER
Falstf
this cam
proud. T
performa
even the
by it a
Falstaff Performance Very Difficult Matter
ONALD KRUMMEL
FORMANCE of Verdi's with a profound intellectual con- realize that an opera depends on
aft is a feat of which ception, a combination found else- the art of music, which has the
should be justly where in operatic music only'in power not so much to establish
s the works of Mozart. and refine a personality, emotion,
o everyone's ssoadmisinrfn
nc Its success depends not only on or feelmg, as much as to rein-
rices areir farceatooeighare;
Met has been frightene a fine musical and dramatic p r- force and heighten its basic ef-
d id formance but also on an audience f .
vy n, ana consiaering Le in re . ..,_W" . ...
quent attempts there, quite justi- with the rare quality of astutenes
fiably. in discerning the rich and variei
For Falstaff presents the prob- details of the work.
lens of ,cohinin, i a i, ,r et±i± The librettois.e n eoure. takes
THE SCOPE of this opera is
realized when we compare it
with its predecessors.
Verdi thus emerges as a com-
poser .who, during a long creative
career, slowly evolves a more in-
teresting and personal style, creat-
ing masterpieces in each phase of
this evolution.
Falstaff, written in Verdi's eigh-
tieth year, represents his most ad-
vanced style. -We can best compre-
hend its uniqueness by compar-
ing it with an earlier work such
as Nabucco, written just 50 years
earlier.
For operas of 1842, we find the
librettist drawing irreverently and
indescriminately on historical sub-
ject matter.
Nabucco is of course just a nick-
name for Nebuchadnezzar; in ad-
dition to the Babylonian poten-
tate, the opera features his two
unruly daughters (both sopranos),
a handsome, dashing young Is-
raelite general (the tenor, of
course), high priests of BaNal, and
See VERDIPage 10
NEW PRODUCTION-A scale model of the set to be used in this
week's production of "Falstaff" by the speech department and
the music school. The set is designed by Prof. Jack E. Bender.
from Shakespeare's two plays of Shakespeare contrasts him as a
Henry IV and The Merry Wives degenerating personality with the
of Windsor. But Falstaff, like figure of Prince Hal, who con-
Hamlet, Otello, or Faust, is a much stantly develops in personal stat-
simplified personality when he ure. But Verdi's opera has no
adopts a singing voice. Prince Hal, and from the first
His character here is nothing measure Falstaff is obviously al-
more (and nothing less, for that ready completely degenerate.
ihatter) than that ofai~unques- This simplification should not
tioning egotist and an uncompro- disturb anyone.
mising debaucher. The creators simply and wisely
I
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