Pittsburgh Opera Opens ‘Falstaff’ at Benedum (Tues., 4/28/26)

FALSTAFF (opera) by Giuseppe Verdi with libretto by Arrigo Boito. Pittsburgh Opera. April 28 – May 3.

Adapted and abridged from Shakespeare’s comedy, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Verdi’s Falstaff was only his second comedic opera and yet, the last he wrote of his 26 operas. Perhaps stranger than science, Pittsburgh Opera’s production of Falstaff will be the last opera produced under the leadership of Christopher Hahn, the company’s general director who first served as artistic director beginning in 2000; that makes 26, too! Thus, this production is likely to pull out all of the stops.

Verdi’s central character, of course, is Sir John Falstaff, the roly-poly, self-adulating knight who’s everyone’s comic fool. The operatic story follows Falstaff’s scheme to woo two rich wives and earn easy hush money from their sure-to-be-ashamed husbands. To set the frolic apace, he drafts identical letters and has his henchmen, Bardolfo and Pistolo, deliver one to each. But it takes no time for the two “merry” wives to realize they’ve been duped. Ah, such folly then begets much, much more. This grand production will feature the acclaimed baritone Michael Chioldi as Falstaff and the always-amazing Marianne Cornetti as Mistress Quickly. As Boito’s libretto ends, we celebrate (albeit in Italian) “he laughs well who laughs the final laugh!” 7 p.m. with a pre-opera talk at 6 p.m. Benedum Center, 237 7th St., Cultural District. (C.P.O.)

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