f- PAG E 8

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

4

VERDI'S OPERA TO BE GIVEN:


Falstaff Performance Very Difficult Matter
By DONALD KRUMMEL i e apn
A PERFORMANC of Verdi's with a profound intellectual con- realize that an opera depends on
Falstaff is a feat of which ception, a combnation found else- the art of music, which has the
this campus should be justly where in operatic music only in power not so much to establish
proud. To everyone's admission, the works of Mozart. and refine a personality, emotion,
performances are far too rare; Its success depends not only on or feeling, as much as to rein-
even the Met has been frightened a fine musical and dramatic per- force and heighten its basic ef-
by it, and considering the infre- formance, but also on an audience fects.
quent attempts there, quite justi- with the rare quality of astuteness
fiably. in discerning the rich and varied $W HE SCOPE of this opera is
For Falstaff presents the prob- details of the work. realized when we compare it
lems of combining a lyric style The- libretto is, of course, taken 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-
--ay-ni sk ~ ing it with an earlier work such
-Daly-ickGasili as Nabucco, written just 50 years
NEW PRODUCTION-A scale model of the set to be used in this e arlier.
. week's production of "Falstaff" by the speech department and For operas of 1842, we find the
the music school. The set is designed by Prof. Jack E. Bender, librettist drawing irreverently and
from Shakespeare's two plays of Shakespeare contrasts him as a indescriminately on historical sub-
Henry IV and The Merry Wives d ienserating personality with the ject matter.
I of Windsor. But Falstaff, like figure of Prince Hal, who con- N.buree is of course just a nick-
Hamlet, Otello, or Faust, is a much stantly develops in personal stat- name for Nebuchadnezzar; in ad-
simplified personality when lie ure. But Verdi's opera has no dition to the Babylonian poten-
adopts a singing voice. Prince Hal, and from the first tate, the opera features nis two
His character here is nothing ueasure Falstaff is obviously al- unruly daughters (both sopranos),
mre (and nothing less, for that ready completely degenerate, a handsome, dashing young Is-
matter) than that of an unques- This simplification should not raelite general (the tenor, of
tioning egotist and an uncompro- disturb anyone. course), high priests of Baal, and
nsising debaucher. The creators simply and wisely See VERDI, Page 10

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