'FALSTAFF': BARITONE CAPTURES ROGUE'S SPIRIT.

Byline: KRISTINA MELCHER, PHOTO COURTESY KEN HOWARD/SANTA FE OPERA

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In a review of Falstaff on Page C-1 on Sunday, scenic designer Allen Moyer's first name was misspelled.

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OPERA REVIEW

Baritone: Designer makes Windsor Park scene pure magic

How can we forgive such a rogue as Sir John Falstaff?

Unprincipled, but endearing. Lusty, clueless -- a narcissist. And there's the matter of his girth. He's enormous -- his belly's so large it buoys him up and saves him from drowning (more on this later). He's a character of flesh and blood, but he's larger-than-life too; we suspect he is one of the immortals, even as he gloats over a mug of sack in his favorite watering hole.

The Santa Fe Opera's production of Verdi's Falstaff wonderfully opened the company's 52nd season Friday night. French baritone Laurent Naouri, last seen here in 2006 as Escamillo in Carmen, commands the title role. Naouri is a convincing actor, responsive to his colleagues on stage. He's playful; his physical acting feels utterly spontaneous. Add to this a powerful baritone of resonant beauty, and Naouri captures us with his Sir John Falstaff.

Falstaff, written "just to pass the time" when Verdi was nearly 80, and after 50 years of writing tragedies, is a lyric comedy in three acts. Well-known poet and composer Arrigo Boito adapted Shakespeare's comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor and bolstered it with passages from the Henry IV plays to create his comic libretto.

Sir John Falstaff, who has seen better days, holds his tiny court at the Garter Inn. His scruffy servants -- Bardolph (the able tenor Keith Jameson), and Pistol (the comical bass Wilbur Pauley), attend him. In bursts a pompous and choleric Dr. Caius (energetic tenor Corey Bix), who accuses the henchmen of robbing him while he was drunk. Falstaff, not impressed, sends him packing. His own financial outlook is dire and inspires his plot: Two fine ladies, very married, hold the purse strings of their well-to-do burgher husbands. Perhaps a profitable liaison is in the offing. His own purse is depleted, but his girth is his wealth! Nevertheless, he has written two identical mash notes and orders his two charges to deliver them. They protest, so Falstaff's tiny page-boy, Robin (an adorable Trevor Wilson), is dispatched.

Two merry wives of Windsor, Alice Ford and Meg Page (SFO debutante, soprano Claire Rutter and mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor), read the letters, discover the gambit and are amused -- and outraged. With help from Alice's daughter Nannetta (Laura Giordano) and Mistress Quickly (mezzo Nancy Maultsby) they devise their own scheme to induce the odious Falstaff to come to the Ford house for a severe spanking. Quickly, brilliantly playing it madcap a la I Love Lucy, calls on Sir John, flatters his titanic ego and tells him Alice is madly in love with him. There's more, she says: Alice awaits him between the hours of 2 and 3, when her husband is out every day. (Where does he go?) And Mrs. Page, Quickly insists, is in a similar state of ardor. Quickly produces handkerchiefs belonging to each as tokens -- and as proof.

Meanwhile, the manly men in this tale galvanize. They are much aggrieved and cook up Falstaff's comeuppance. Their plan includes Mr. Ford (the lusty-sounding baritone Franco Pomponi) disguising himself as yet another would-be paramour for Mistress Ford. The ladies are busy devising their own Mise-en-scene.

The romantic subplot -- between the sweethearts Nannetta and the handsome young Fenton (the honey-voiced tenor Norman Reinhardt) -- provide the story's superglue. Mr. Ford does not approve of his daughter's suitor and makes it clear she will wed Dr. Caius. But Windsor's merry wives aren't merry for naught. The ensuing comic byplay ends with Falstaff (whose layers of finery offer a hint at his once-knightly bearing) getting dumped into the putrid Thames.

Act III finds our formerly fine Knight soggy and bitter: "O Wicked World," he tells his young page (who we assume has fished him out). Naouri breaks our hearts here. A stein of wine soon dispenses Falstaff's dark musings. The orchestra's expressive accompaniment illustrates the thrill as the mulled wine travels upward to Sir John's water-logged brain. But, ho -- here's that Mistress Quickly again. She addresses "His Reverence": Alice's still yearns for him. Look -- here's her letter beseeching him to meet that very night. The midnight rendezvous, Quickly chimes, shall be at Herne's oak, in Windsor Park, but Sir John must wear -- more manliness -- antlers!

The scene in Windsor Park is pure magic, thanks to scenic designer Allemn Moyer. Hearne's oak appears to have been wrenched from the ground in times past. Huge roots twist and vestigial branches turn. The sky is velvet and twinkles with stars; Duane Schuler's lighting glows a Maxfield Parrish blue.

Paolo Arrivabeni led the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra on solid footing throughout the score, which has as its core purpose the framing of Falstaff's orations. The piece rushed by like liquid mercury. Alas, at times it was difficult to hear the merry wives: pit-stage volume balance, especially in the first act, seemed tipped to the orchestra. In a notoriously difficult ensemble piece in Act I, men sing perfectly in one meter while their female counterparts plot in another -- Family Feud gone mad. The magnificent eight-part closing fugue -- well, you'll have to take my word for it.

Or better yet, take Verdi at his word: "Falstaff is a rogue who gets into every kind of mischief but in an amusing way. He's a type. Types are so various! The opera is entirely comic! Amen."

Falstaff continues with performances on Wednesday, Saturday, July 11 and 29 and Aug. 4, 11, 16, 19 and 23. For ticket information, call 986-5900 or go online to santafeopera.org.

Kristina Melcher can be contacted at 986-3044 or [e-mail].

CAPTION(S):

1. French baritone Laurent Naouri is a commanding presence as Sir John Falstaff in Santa Fe Opera's production of Verdi's Falstaff.