Falstaff [Blu-ray]

The Glyndebourne Festival Opera mounted this production of Giuseppe Verdi's 1893 +Falstaff under the direction of Richard Jones in 2009. Regarded as Verdi's comical magnum opus, the work was actually adapted from two Shakespeare plays, +The Merry Wives of Windsor and +Henry IV, and brings back to the stage one of the Bard's most beloved characters: the corpulent and perpetually cowardly knight Sir John Falstaff. This version stars Christopher Purves as Falstaff, Yannis Christoyannis as Ford, Dina Kuznetsova as Alice Ford and Marie-Nicole Lemieux as Mistress Quickly. The London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Glyndebourne Chorus lend musical accompaniment, with Vladimir Jurowski conducting and Thomas Blunt serving as chorus master; Ultz designed the costumes and sets.