(100 023), distributed by the excellent Naxos of America people, his opinion might change. Now granted that it comes nowhere close to the standard set by the Verdi opera and it lacks the great beauty of the Vaughan Williams "Sir John in Love," it is almost as good as Nicolai's "Merry Wives of Windsor" and quite respectable on its own terms. As in Boito's libretto for the Verdi work, Salieri's librettist, Carlo Prospers Defranceschi, cut the Shakespeare play down to its essential plots and even more so. The subplot of Fenton and Ann Page is gone. Indeed so are Mr. and Mrs. Page, the second merry wife here becoming Mrs. Slender. The incident of Falstaff in drag is included, however, and Mr. Ford gets two jealousy arias, where Boito gives him one.
There is a very funny scene in which Mrs. Ford comes in disguise (since there is no Mistress Quickly in this version), pretending to speak German and a little English, while Falstaff professes to speak only English and a little German--all the while the two are singing in Italian, laced with German phrases and a little French thrown in!
There is a little more secco recite than modern audiences would care to have, and not many of the tunes of the arias and ensembles will linger in the memory after only one hearing; but the score is in general bubbly and well composed by the man who almost certainly did not murder Mozart.
The cast is strong throughout. Boasting many American singers, it includes John Del Carlo (Falstaff), Teresa Ringholz (Mrs. Ford), Richard Croft (Mr. Ford), Delores Ziegler (Mrs. Slender), Jake Gardner (Mr. Slender), Carlos Feller (Bardolfo), and Darla Brooks (Betty). Del Carlo gives us a tall, not really unattractive Falstaff (except for the paunch), while Ringholz shows good comic flair in her two disguise scenes. Extra humor is offered by the zesty subtitles, written in rhyme, that paraphrase rather than translate the Italian text.
Arnold Oestmann conducts the Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart at the Schwetzinger Festspiele. The video is excellent, the subtitles are clear. And the disc runs at about 20 minutes longer than the 120 minutes shown on the back cover. A delightful addition to any musical collection.
Rating: 
Summary: A very pleasant surprise
Review: "Not very good" was how a friend of mine many years ago described the music to a certain opera he had just heard on a CD. Perhaps if he viewed the new Arthaus Musik DVD release of Salieri's <Falstaff> (100 023), distributed by the excellent Naxos of America people, his opinion might change.
Now granted that it comes nowhere close to the standard set by the Verdi opera and it lacks the great beauty of the Vaughan Williams "Sir John in Love," it is almost as good as Nicolai's "Merry Wives of Windsor" and quite respectable on its own terms. As in Boito's libretto for the Verdi work, Salieri's librettist, Carlo Prospers Defranceschi, cut the Shakespeare play down to its essential plots and even more so. The subplot of Fenton and Ann Page is gone. Indeed so are Mr. and Mrs. Page, the second merry wife here becoming Mrs. Slender. The incident of Falstaff in drag is included, however, and Mr. Ford gets two jealousy arias, where Boito gives him one.
There is a very funny scene in which Mrs. Ford comes in disguise (since there is no Mistress Quickly in this version), pretending to speak German and a little English, while Falstaff professes to speak only English and a little German--all the while the two are singing in Italian, laced with German phrases and a little French thrown in!
There is a little more secco recite than modern audiences would care to have, and not many of the tunes of the arias and ensembles will linger in the memory after only one hearing; but the score is in general bubbly and well composed by the man who almost certainly did not murder Mozart.
The cast is strong throughout. Boasting many American singers, it includes John Del Carlo (Falstaff), Teresa Ringholz (Mrs. Ford), Richard Croft (Mr. Ford), Delores Ziegler (Mrs. Slender), Jake Gardner (Mr. Slender), Carlos Feller (Bardolfo), and Darla Brooks (Betty). Del Carlo gives us a tall, not really unattractive Falstaff (except for the paunch), while Ringholz shows good comic flair in her two disguise scenes. Extra humor is offered by the zesty subtitles, written in rhyme, that paraphrase rather than translate the Italian text.
Arnold Oestmann conducts the Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart at the Schwetzinger Festspiele. The video is excellent, the subtitles are clear. And the disc runs at about 20 minutes longer than the 120 minutes shown on the back cover. A delightful addition to any musical collection.
Rating: 
Summary: Salieri is not Mozart
Review: This DVD is nicely presented visually, but I found the sound on my admittedly ancient TV to be quite distorted. It seemed as if the sound was recorded at a level above what the recording equipment could take. Most of the singers including Falstaff seemed reasonably accurate, but the apparent distortion made the quality seem mediocre. The dialogue was quite good and the comic acting was excellent. On the other hand, the quality of the music was just not very good. Maybe everyone should hear Salieri's music (origin of 2 star rating) but I don't believe one needs to invest $30 for this privilege. My copy is going to the library because in spite of good orchestral playing and decent singing and acting, I will never waste my time watching and listening to this again.
Rating:
Summary: Salieri is not Mozart
Review: This DVD is nicely presented visually, but I found the sound on my admittedly ancient TV to be quite distorted. It seemed as if the sound was recorded at a level above what the recording equipment could take. Most of the singers including Falstaff seemed reasonably accurate, but the apparent distortion made the quality seem mediocre. The dialogue was quite good and the comic acting was excellent. On the other hand, the quality of the music was just not very good. Maybe everyone should hear Salieri's music (origin of 2 star rating) but I don't believe one needs to invest $30 for this privilege. My copy is going to the library because in spite of good orchestral playing and decent singing and acting, I will never waste my time watching and listening to this again.
Rating:
Summary: Sparkling Salieri!
Review: This production is about as sparkling a work as I've seen in quite some time. Salieri's score shows very heavy influences of his rival, Mozart, in particular his overture reminded me a good bit of Nozze di Figaro. It's perhaps easy to see (or hear) why
Mozart outshone Salieri. Mozart (we know) was genius who accomplished the unbelievable and amazing in such a brief span of life. Nonetheless, Salieri is very worthy of exploration and his works, this in particular, should be heard by modern audiences. I can't think of a better production to do the introduction than this ArtHaus DVD.
In the title role, we are treated to a spirited, infectiously joyful performance by John Del Carlo. He looks exactly like my perfect Verdian Falstaff and his music is inspired. Salieri's recitatives are often as exciting as his arias and ensembles, and he's fairly daring in his structure of this work with ensembles, recits, arias, double recits, etc. flowing in and out of each other was masterful creativity.
What a delight to see Delores Ziegler as Mistress Slender. Ziegler's comic timing is nearly the match of Del Carlo's and again Salieri has given his cast some tough music.
Speaking of tough music, the assignment Salieri gives Ford (as opposed to Verdi's Ford, we get a tenor), is met with near athletic aplomb and virtuosity by my favorite tenor, Richard Croft. Croft plays the jealous Ford with the skill of a great actor, his body language, even when he's just listening and reacting to Slender's scheming reveals much about this character. Croft throws out some dazzling vocal fireworks in his 2nd scene's aria and recitative. While some critics complain that even late Salieri sounds older than early Mozart, I won't agree. Some of his music, (aforementioned aria in particular) almost sounds Rossinian! Ditto the Act I quartet with the Slenders and the Fords.
Teresa Ringholz does not possess my favorite type of voice, but as Mistress Ford, she shows herself to be a great comic actress and she shows a sense of Salierian style (?!) and her voice actually grew on me to the point where she had me cheering her on several times.
I can think of a few listers who won't want to hear this, but I think anyone looking for something a bit off the beaten path (okay, more than a "bit" off it), thoroughly tuneful, and with near nonstop comic action by performers who are clearly having a damned good time, I can't recommend this enough.
Michael Hampe's stylish sets and costumes are a perfect fit for the tiny Schwetzingen stage making it appear both much larger and smaller than it really is. Arnold Ostman and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony are inspired sounding like they're racing off to a fire. Once or twice that makes it feel as though a singer might not make it (there really is some virtuoso singing going on) but they do and the time flies by.
It's difficult not to fall in love with Salieri's sparkling opera!
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