2012
Design and realisation for ‘Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi
Falstaff is an opera about a sinful and ignorant man who wants to seduce two
married women, namely Alice Ford and Meg Page. It doesn’t take long before the whole town finds out about his scurvy plans. Alice and Meg decide to teach the man a lesson, and because Falstaff isn’t that bright, the women can play tricks on him as much as they like. In the end the whole town fools him: the inhabitants disguise themselves as
supernatural creatures and set up a scary ritual to torment Falstaff.
My version of the opera is based on the Fellini-Grotesque and the dreamy, surreal atmospheres he applies in his films.
The whole play is therefore a mere sexual fantasy of Falstaff himself. In the beginning of his delusion all the
figures are only slightly erotic, based on the drawings of Felicién Rops. In the end, however, the fantasy goes wrong. It slowly but surely evolves into a pornographic nightmare that isn’t sensual at all. Luckely he awakes, concluding that
‘tutto nel mundo è burla’.
