Skip to main content
Shakespeare & Beyond

A feast of Falstaff: Sir John in opera

Falstaff
Falstaff
Falstaff

Thomas Aynsley Cook as Falstaff in Otto Nicolai’s Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor. Pen and ink drawing by Matt Stretch, Feb. 15, 1878. Folger ART Box S915 no.7 (size XL)

There’s no other character from Shakespeare who has charmed the imaginations of opera composers and librettists more than Sir John Falstaff.

There are two core pieces of opera repertoire that feature Falstaff – Nicolai’s Merry Wives of Windsor and Verdi’s Falstaff – not to mention operas by the likes of Antonio Salieri (Mozart’s arch-nemesis, should the award-winning play and movie Amadeus be believed), the Irish composer Michael Balfe, and British heavyweights Ralph Vaughan-Williams and Gustav Holst.

Interestingly, it’s only Nicolai’s work that uses the title Merry Wives of Windsor; Verdi, Balfe, Salieri, and Vaughan-Williams all use either ‘Falstaff’ or ‘Sir John’ in their opera titles, a testament to the popularity of the character, rather than the play.

Falstaff as the Basso Buffo

Why is it that Sir John has proven so popular over 200 odd years of opera history?

Arguably the main reason is that Falstaff fits the bill of one of the most beloved stock opera characters – that of the Basso Buffo (‘funny bass’), which truly came to the fore towards the end of the 18th century. Sometimes the Buffo is a slightly malevolent but pathetic character, and at times a slightly hapless foil to the main protagonist. Very rarely the hero, the Buffo is still often the most interesting and entertaining character – think Bartolo in Barber of Seville, Dulcamara in Elixir of Love, or Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier. It’s easy to see how Falstaff – whether as a direct Buffo or a near cousin – was an obvious choice for librettists and composers looking for new inspiration.

Comments

We always love hearing more about Falstaff. Allegedly Queen Elizabeth’s favorite Shakespeare character, and many of us agree. Most great composers are said to have been inspired by Shakespeare’s works in at least one of their compositions.

My wife and I saw “Chimes at Midnight” three times when it was finally re-released. Although it makes less use of Merry Wives of Windsor than composers did, it is extremely thought-provoking. It reminded me of an old hunch that Falstaff might be a veiled spoof of King Henry VIII. At his death, the king weighed an estimated 390 pounds, based on the size of his last suit of armor.

Doing some research, I learned that the king’s morbid obesity got much worse after a jousting accident in 1536, when his fully armored horse landed on top of him, knocking him out, and putting him into a coma for two hours. It was only after that that he developed what is now known to be possible complications of traumatic brain injury–uncontrollable overeating, along with an uncontrollable temper.

In fact, it was a mere four months after his accident that he had Anne Boleyn executed. So Anne’s daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth, had grounds for feeling some ambivalence toward her father. For all we know, she may have gotten the joke about Falstaff as a caricature of the aging Henry VIII–and may have felt some catharsis as a result.

My article about some of these speculations is in the current Notes & Queries–
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-wj8be5M2fM7CQ_XHZ1wYtEy4IBHhu6u/view

Richard Waugaman — September 4, 2019