UK Theatre Network

Falstaff

Reviewed on Wednesday 25th November 2009

Richard Jones’ staging of Verdi's comic opera is a lot less controversial than his 2008 production of Macbeth. However, there were some murmurings in the audience in reaction to some of the scenery, particularly when the garden at Ford’s house was revealed with its rows of cabbages, skipping brownies, young Etonian rowers moving backwards and forwards and plenty of men in uniform. The men get the best costumes; poor Alice, Meg and Nannetta spend much of their time in really dull attire. Even in the last scene Meg and Alice are ‘disguised’ under tent-like cloaks made from curtain material.  Good for a giggle were the cats that came dangerously close to scene stealing a number of times. So, some imaginative and effective design by Ultz but this did not transpire in the last scene which was too predictable. This was a let down compared to the imaginative and tight staging of the previous scenes. Too many people crowded onto the stage wandering randomly about in seemingly undirected chaos. This climax, where Falstaff is taunted, seemed neither frightening nor funny but merely a bit bewildering.  

So, to the performances. Jonathan Veira's Falstaff, who according to the programme has played this part over 80 times in 4 or 5 different versions played this purely for laughs and although an immensely powerful performance and highly amusing there was a lack of any subtlety or sensitivity in this particular performance. It was at full throttle throughout and we were in the realm of caricature by the end. I wonder if Viera over-eggs the pudding like this every time or was pushed by revival director Sarah Fahie to drive every pun, play on words, and innuendo home as hard as this. The Glyndebourne audience is an intelligent one; they don't need everything spelled out for them. Veira is a brilliant singer though and where he was superb was in his vocal performance, so clearly at ease with the music and words that you did feel totally confident of him as the pivotal point for almost all the musical interaction.

The other males were good, particularly Bardolph (Harry Nichol) and Pistol, (Sion Goronwy) who were such a bizarre misfit couple physically that much of the comedy was in the visual interplay between them. Ford (Guido Loconsolo) was very understated and played the respectable husband quietly and convincingly.

All the women were superb, Meg (Rachel Lloyd), Alice (Jessica Muirhead), Nannetta (Elena Tsallagova), who incidentally has the sweetest crystal clear voice, and Mistress Quickly (Kathleen Wilkinson) balanced each other well and portrayed the relationships between them believably. The performances of all these characters were discrete and sophisticated and that was perhaps why Viera seemed to be otherwise.

Thomas Blunt’s direction of the orchestra was expert and gave the audience time in each scene to enjoy the layers of the music and experience the full richness of the score.

This was a very funny evening but the opera as a whole suffered from unevenness of staging and imbalance between the performance of the main characters.

Falstaff plays Milton Keynes Theatre Saturday 28^th November (0870 060 6652 Booking Fee) and the Plymouth, Theatre Royal Wednesday 2^nd, Saturday 5^th December (01752 267222)