Falstaff rivisto

Giuseppe Verdi & Floris van Bergeijk/Arrigo Boito

The opera libretto is both witty and sensitive. Falstaff is not only a villain, but a sad individual as well. He continually falls prey to his addictions, namely eating, women and his lack of introspection. Although he is somewhat more dignified, he displays a certain similarity to Donald Duck-- he too seems to emerge anew from his egg every day. Good humored, equipped with an enormous appetite, he rushes headlong into the same snare that he dangled from yesterday.

For this adaptation of Verdi's masterpiece Falstaff, Opera Spanga collaborated with Rosa Ensemble. Rosa Ensemble is a sassy, inspiring group which has assumed a unique position in the music world by operating on the cutting edge of every imaginable sort of contemporary music. The ensemble has achieved considerable acclaim in the area of electronic-acoustic sound sources in a theater context. In Rosa Ensemble Opera Spanga has found a partner in its against-the-grain approach to the score.

Press

´Corina van Eijk's mini opera festival is known for its original ideas, but there has never been a Spanga summer that was so exciting.´

´(...)it has never sounded as humorous as in Spanga.´

In August 2012 the Volkskrant declared Falstaff rivisto to be one of the best Shakespeare interpretations in recent years.

´The essence of the opera remains intact.´

NRC Handelsblad, June 21, 2011

´Director Corina van Eijk, who with her Opera Spanga has more often than not given familiar repertroire an unorthodox twist, goes a giant step further with this frenzied Falstaff. (...) but regardless of how risky the undertaking may be, it works. (...) makes even more evident how ingenious it is put together.'

De Volkskrant, June 24, 2011

'Purists might disapprove, but it sings and swings like a bomb. (...) It is a sort of cultual Monty Python - extremely well done- and it perfectly reinforces the cartoon-like quality of this revised Falstaff. (...) It adds up to the most effervescent Opera Spanga in years. Go see it!'

Dagblad van het Noorden, June 24, 2011

'Falstaff rivisto', a modern Gesamtkunstwerk'

Leeuwarder Courant, June 23, 2011

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