This Met broadcast of Verdi’s Falstaff from 1949 has a great deal to recommend it. Judging by the copious amount of audience laughter, the production was filled with pretty broad humor, and conductor Fritz Reiner and his cast take a pretty broad–rather than delicate, or whimsical, or autumnally understanding–view of the work. For the period, the playing of the Met Orchestra is excellent; Reiner keeps them in line as much as he does the singers, and ensemble work is top-notch. Leonard Warren may not be the subtlest of Falstaffs; indeed he often oversings the role, and early on the voice does not cooperate. He misses the playful silliness of “Quande’ero paggio” in Act 2, but has the start of Act 3 down pat. Still, you keep hearing other great Falstaffs in your mind’s ear.
Giuseppe Valdengo is in dryish voice as Ford, but what a vivid character he draws! None other than Giuseppe di Stefano is Fenton, sounding meltingly beautiful and ardent, lingering just slightly too long on some notes in his aria. His Nanetta is Licia Albanese, and she’s miscast: her voice has little pliancy and she ends her aria flat. Regina Resnik, in her soprano period, is a perky, colorful Alice Ford; Martha Lipton does well as Meg, and Cloe Elmo is a terrific, almost visual Quickly. The sound is pretty awful. This set really is for specialists and fans of the individual singers, but Reiner’s leadership is fascinating and right-on.
