Falstaff (Salieri)
- Sir John Falstaff ( bass)
- Bardolf, his servant (baritone )
- Master Ford (tenor )
- Mrs. Ford, his wife (Soprano)
- Master Slender (baritone )
- Mrs. Slender, his wife (mezzo- soprano)
- Betty, Mrs. Ford's maid (soprano )
- Friends, friends and guests of Ford and Slender, neighborhood, servants, people
Falstaff ossia Le tre burle (English Falstaff or The Three pranks ) is a 1799 premiered Dramma giocoso in two acts by Antonio Salieri on a text by Carlo Prospero De Franceschi, based on the comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare.
The premiere took place on January 3, 1799 in Kärntnertortheater in Vienna. Contemporary reports that the premiere was an extraordinary success, numerous numbers had to be repeated. The Viennese officials Carl Rosenbaum writes about this in his diary: " [ ... ] by 5 clock in the Kärntnerthor theater where Salieri's opera Le tre burle for the first time and was given a rare applause. Many pieces were wiederhollt, and a duet thrice. After the opera Salieri had zweymal show the audience and the whole staff was pre- call. "
Still in the world premiere composed by Ludwig van Beethoven 10 Variations for Piano in B flat major ( WoO 73) on the duet " La stessa, la stessissima " from the first act of Salieri's opera; on the same subject and Variations for Piano by Beethoven competitors Joseph Cub, as well as the Mozart pupil Josepha Barbara Auernhammer are obtained.
The music for Falstaff is undoubtedly one of the most original works of Salieri; a wise musical tour guide (eg the rather characterized with features of serious opera Mr. Ford ), coupled with the successful blend of opera buffa and opera seria elements, as well as a remarkable orchestration with numerous expressive solos (including Clarinet, Violin and cello) show the extraordinary artistic profile of the composer. Also in this work can be seen to create more complex scene, instead of trusting isolated on the traditional sequence numbers Salieri standing trend.
One of the few operas of Salieri's Falstaff is more commonly seen in recent times on the stage, such as 1961 in Siena, 1975 in Verona and in Salieri's hometown Legnano, 1976 in Salzburg, 1977 in Trieste, 1981 in Verona, 1985 in Budapest, 1987, in Parma and in Bordeaux, 1988 in Konstanz, 1991 in Bad Aibling, 1992 in Drottningholm, 1995 at the Schwetzingen Festival and in Rheinberg, 1996 in Milan, 1998 in New York, 2000, again in Konstanz, 2002 in Rennes and in Innsbruck, 2003 at Schloss Dankern in Emsland and in Bampton / England, 2004, at the Bath Shakespeare Festival, 2005 in Vienna and the Swiss Hausen am Albis, 2006 in Otago / New Zealand, 2007 Nijetrijne / Holland, 2012 in Biel / Switzerland.
The opera is its complete version in three different productions, the Schwetzingen performance is now available on DVD.