DIE LUSTIGEN WEIBER VON WINDSOR

In the organizer's words:

He is an irresistible Hallodri, the fat knight Sir John Falstaff. But when he tries to seduce two Windsor burgesses with letters of the same name, he meets his match: He is dumped into the Thames one after the other along with his dirty laundry, chased out of the house in women's clothes and teased in the woods at midnight. The "merry wives" also manage to bring a jealous husband to his senses and two young lovers together.

Between Antonio Salieri and Giuseppe Verdi, Shakespeare's comic character Falstaff made several appearances on the opera stage. Otto Nicolai's version can be regarded as the German opera based on the material that is still valid today. His greatest and last success (he died in May 1849, just two months after the Berlin premiere) delights throughout, from the enchanting overture to the turbulent finale, in which "everything ends in joy and merriment".

The production is directed by the humorous grande dame of German music theater, with the house's new chief conductor at the podium.