I am not unbiased about this Falstaff at Seattle Opera (it runs through March 13). In fact, I am counting the hours until tonight’s performance.
Previously, I saw the production performed by the Opera’s Young Artists, also directed by Peter Kazaras, and was absolutely blown away how Shakespearean it was. That, I realize, sounds strange, but it’s a Verdi opera and if you saw Seattle Opera’s production of Verdi’s Macbeth, you realize the latitude a director has. (I didn’t love Macbeth.)
Drama is about choices, and Kazaras chooses wisely. Bernard Jacobson, in his Seattle Times review, goes all out. Jacobson is a thoughtful critic, and more immune to gushing than many. But he likes what he likes: “Kazaras’ genius is to use genuinely original ideas to set the true message of an opera forth in a new and utterly arresting light.”
