A FAMILIAR 'FALSTAFF' BUOYED BY BASS-BARITONE.

Byline: David Mermelstein Correspondent

THERE'S A LITTLE bit of history between ``Falstaff,'' Verdi's last opera, and the City of the Angels.

A 1982 production, guided by Carlo Maria Giulini, was one of the high- water marks of his six seasons as the Los Angeles Philharmonic's music director. And it was among the works that the Los Angeles Opera's founding director, Peter Hemmings, used to prove that his fledgling company wasn't going to present just hit-parade material.

Now ``Falstaff'' is back in town - it opened Saturday afternoon - and is once more being trotted out to make extra musical points, this time yet another strong signal from Hemmings' L.A. Opera successor, Placido Domingo, that the company can bring local audiences operatic headliners, in this case the great Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel making his company performance debut.

Of course, there's a back-story here as well. Terfel wasn't originally scheduled to sing Falstaff. He was supposed to appear in another signature role, that of the title character in Stephen Sondheim's musical-cum-opera ``Sweeney Todd.'' But never mind, the change was made months ago.

With all that freight, this production - an altered version of the old Giulini staging - had more than the usual number of expectations to live up to. Happily, it mostly honors its musical responsibilities, if sometimes modestly.

Not that it isn't a joy to see Terfel in this part. He is, and likely will remain, the era's greatest exponent of the jolly knight. He inhabits the role effortlessly - no superfluous mugging. Though some may lament that he doesn't milk the role of every drop of comic excess, restraint really is the better part of valor. Then there's the voice, or rather The Voice. Deep but not dark, rich but not cloying, large but not inordinately so. If there is one reason to see this production - and there need be only one - Terfel is it.

The rest of the cast inhabit their Shakespearean characters less successfully but well enough. (Verdi's librettist Arrigo Boito merged ``The Merry Wives of Windsor'' with material from ``Henry IV, Parts I and II'' to create ``Falstaff.'')

Three of the four ladies who get the better of Falstaff come closest to providing Terfel with worthy stage partners. Soprano Kallen Esperian makes a radiant Alice Ford; soprano Celena Shafer, in her company debut, chirps prettily as a coltish Nannetta; and mezzo-soprano Jane Henschel, making a welcome return to the company for the first time since 1997, offers a robust Mistress Quickly.

As Falstaff's sidekicks Bardolph and Pistol, tenor Greg Fedderly and bass Dean Peterson provided requisite buffoonery, but Ukrainian baritone Vassily Gerello should be more menacing as the gullible Ford, and though the much-touted young Russian tenor Daniil Shtoda, singing Fenton, gained in confidence as the opera progressed, his attractive voice seemed small.

Stephen Lawless' direction could generously be described as routine, with a certain discomfitting stasis its most salient characteristic, though the autumn leaves occasionally blowing across the stage are nice. Hayden Griffin's sets and Michael Stennett's costumes are hyper-realistic and dowdy, and thus eminently English.

For many connoisseurs of this opera, though, what happens in the pit counts most. ``Falstaff'' is famously considered a turning point in operatic history, with Verdi distilling a lifetime's experience into a score that holds innumerable treasures, many rarely excavated. Kent Nagano's way with the music was not revelatory, but his sure hand kept everyone, and everything, firmly on course.

FALSTAFF - Three stars

Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: 7:30 tonight, Monday, Thursday and June 15; 2 p.m. June 12.

Tickets: $25-$190. [phone]; www.losangelesopera.com.

In a nutshell: The great Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel brings one of his signature roles to a solid but not inspired production of Verdi's final opera.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Bass-baritone Bryn Terfel brings Shakespeare's comic legend to life with help from soprano Kallen Esperian in Verdi's ``Falstaff.''