The premiere of this "sparkling and unstoppable" work, as the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos defines it, is scheduled for Saturday and will run until the 17th.

"Fallstaff" features staging by Jacopo Spirei, who had already directed "Madama Butterfly" by Giacomo Puccini at the beginning of the season, and set design by Nikolaus Webern, a common name in the main opera houses in Austria and Germany, in particular.

A comic opera, which mainly satirises the romantic-century bourgeoisie that Verdi had dominated with his dramas, "Fallstaff" revisits texts by William Shakespeare, namely "The Merry Wives of Windsor", whose title is quoted in one of the arias, and scenes from the plays "Henry IV" and "Henry V", in a plot developed by Arrigo Boito, who had already worked with Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) on previous creations.

Incidentally, one of the most famous quotes associated with the opera's premiere belongs to Boito, in a letter to the composer: "It is better to end a career with a powerful laugh than with the lamentations of the human heart." "Falstaff", for the farewell to the stage, rather than "Othello", said the writer, author of the libretto, in the Italian composer's third opera, inspired by the English Bard.

For the director of the version that is now premiering in Portugal, Jacopo Spirei, it is a "pleasure to be back" in a theatre where he likes to work, especially staging one of Verdi's "masterpieces", a 'commedia lirica' that ended "a production marked by very intense tragedies", as the S. Carlos programme itself highlights.

It is "an opera full of topicality", the director assured the Lusa agency. Hence the introduction on stage of objects such as mobile phones, traffic lights, computers, a photograph of Elizabeth II of England, in addition to the contemporary costumes.

The British atmosphere is a constant in this staging, meeting the intentions of Verdi, who did not want the operatic action to take place in his country, Italy, Jacopo Spirei told Lusa.

When the spectator enters the S. Carlos auditorium, they are confronted with the "Union Jack" as a backdrop, which remains present throughout the opera.

For the director, this opera tells "the story of the birth of a new social class, the bourgeoisie". "It is an opera of intrigue and gossip", in its plot but, above all, "an opera about freedom."

Verdi's final opera "is cynical, cheerful and sad, but this old Falstaff sees a bright future in youth in which he will not participate", explains Spirei. However, Falstaff "does not see this with bitterness", which "is a great achievement."

This fact not only marks the modernity of the opera, in its time, but also its perenniality.

The premiere, in 1893 at La Scala in Milan, was received with great acclaim. But "Falstaff" would not maintain the popularity of other Verdi titles, recalls the presentation text of the Teatro Nacional de S. Carlos. "It was a disconcerting work, in which the audience did not recognise the exciting arias, choruses and grand finales that had marked all the master's production". In practice, Verdi proposed "an almost radical modernity."

"Falstaff" arrived in Portugal for the first time the following year, at the Teatro de S. Carlos, also starring the baritone Victor Maurel, as in the premiere. In 2001, the Portuguese lyric theatre marked the centenary of Verdi's death by staging his final opera.

"'Falstaff' is a sparkling and unstoppable work", concludes the presentation text released by the theatre, quoting the British critic and musicologist Richard Osborne: "'Falstaff' is the pinnacle of comedy in music (...), inspired by the greatest playwright and written by the greatest opera composer the world has ever known."

The musical direction of this return to "Falstaff" is by Antonio Pirolli, leading the Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa and the Coro do Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, whose principal conductor is Giampaolo Vessella.

The cast includes Pietro Spagnoli as Sir John Falstaff, Dora Rodrigues, André Baleiro, Rita Marques, Maria Luísa de Freitas, Cátia Moreso, Michele Angelini, Marco Alves dos Santos, Leonel Pinheiro and Miguel Ángel Zapater.

The premiere of "Falstaff", on Saturday, will take place at 8 pm, as will the performances on 13, 15 and 17 May. On the 19th, the show is scheduled to start at 4 pm.

The performances will be preceded, 30 minutes before, by a talk by musicologist Luísa Cymbron, in the theatre's grand hall, in a session of "Brief words" about the composer, the music, the opera and its creative context.

The programme notes are the result of a partnership between the Teatro Nacional de S. Carlos and the Department of Musical Sciences of the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, "which includes the production of scientific and academic texts to frame the lyric season, and which will soon be extended to other areas."

The Teatro Nacional de São Carlos will close for works, to be carried out under the Recovery and Resilience Plan, after the end of the Festival ao Largo.

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