FALSTAFF, Giuseppe Verdi

FALSTAFF

Giuseppe Verdi

Available for on-demand streaming until 31 July 2025

on https://www.nationalopera.gr/GNOTV/EN

Ticket: 10€

Opera

Greek National Opera's ambitious new production of the comic opera Falstaff comes on GNO TV. Giuseppe Verdi's swan song, based on the Shakespeare comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor, is being conducted by Pier Giorgio Morandi and directed by the acclaimed director, and Artistic Director of the UK's renowned Glyndebourne Opera Festival, Stephen Langridge. Performing the title role is the outstanding Greek baritone Dimitri Platanias. This production is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) to enhance the GNO's artistic outreach.

The opera has justly been called a masterpiece of the genre for its expressive economy and concise form - for its composer's ability to encapsulate entire characters and situations with a single musical phrase. Indeed, the majority of the work is marked by sustained and often blistering shifts in tempo and tone, and between short melodic themes or harmonies. Falstaff himself is the opera's only true lead role, around which everyone else revolves. Verdi avails himself of a vast palette in order to render the various facets of the main character. In his two monologues, Falstaff condemns the world as unfair and lectures on morality, and goes on to appear before Alice as a great heartbreaker and before her husband, Ford, as a vain knight, before ending up a laughingstock in the forest scene.

Making his debut in the title role is the outstanding Greek baritone Dimitri Platanias, a soloist celebrated around the world. Performing the lead roles are the acclaimed Greek National Opera soloists Tassis Christoyannis, Vassilis Kavayas, Nicholas Stefanou, Yannis Kalyvas, Yanni Yannissis, Cellia Costea, Marilena Striftobola, Anna Agathonos, and Chrysanthi Spitadi.

Conductor Pier Giorgio Morandi
Director Stephen Langridge
Sets, costumes George Souglides
Movement director Dan O'Neill

Sir John Falstaff Dimitri Platanias
Ford Tassis Christoyannis
Fenton Vassilis Kavayas
Dr Caius Nicholas Stefanou
Bardolfo Yannis Kalyvas
Pistola Yanni Yannissis
Alice Ford Cellia Costea
Nannetta Marilena Striftobola
Mistress Quickly Anna Agathonos
Meg Page Chrysanthi Spitadi

With a 10-euro ticket, viewers can enjoy this production from the comfort of their homes at https://tv.nationalopera.gr/en, at any time they choose, on their computer, ipad, TV or mobile phones. The ticket offers the possibility to access the performance for an unlimited number of times over the course of a 30-day period starting from the first streaming.

Lead Donor of the Greek National Opera and Founding Donor of the GNO TV

Stavros Niarchos Foundation