The weather was much cooler yesterday, with a stiff breeze coming up about two hours before show time. The previous three to four days were quite warm here, and it is the first time I've ever heard Anthony wish for air-conditioning! For someone used to a cool Ireland, it must have been exceedingly uncomfortable. He said later that the weather change to cooler made it better for his voice.
For the second performance of Falstaff, I sat in the fourth row center. The performances were just as good the second night as the first. Anthony sang as well or even better (if possible). Since I was not so close to the orchestra, it was a little less loud, and we could hear his aria better.
Falstaff was played by Angelo Romero, a perfect role for him, and a veteran of it. Mrs. Ford was Luciana Serra. She is supposed to be very well known here in Italy and has sung at La Scala. Nannetta was Fiorella di Luca. She is quite young and with a lovely soprano voice. Mrs. Quickly was Sonia Lee. She told us last night she will be in Sao Paulo, Brazil to do La Traviata and Madame Butterfly. She is a mezzo soprano, so would play the parts of Flora and Suzuki, respectively. Sam McElroy, another Irishman, sings Ford. And of course, Fenton was Anthony Kearns!
The night before last I went to hear Rossini's La Cenerentola (Cinderella) in a very small venue. The staging was really strange (a refugee camp?), but the music was gorgeous and the performers were excellent. The three people who played Don Ramiro, Dandini, and Cenerentola were also all in Falstaff! Their parts in Falstaff were Cajus, Pistola, and Meg Page, respectively. It is amazing that they could do Falstaff one night, Cinderella the next (very demanding vocally), and then back to Falstaff again. They have two more performances of Cenerentola to do, as well.
Back to Falstaff. The stage was set with a large tree on the left (it looked real) and Falstaff's bedroom on the right. The first part of the action was to the right in Falstaff's room. Then the action moved to the left side of the stage where the women hung laundry on a line. After getting the notes from Falstaff, the women decided to play trickery on him.
Anthony came out a little later and went "Pssst!" to Nannetta and they sang a very short sweet duet, then he left the stage. A bar was at the back left of the stage, last night it was "Bar Pistola." The scene where Fenton and Nannetta normally stand behind a curtain to declare their love was a little more inventive in the second performance. After a shower of laundry from the skies, indicating confusion, Nannetta climbs into a bed, pulls the sheet over her and motions to Fenton to join her. You should have seen Anthony throw off his coat and his shoes and and climb in with her. The sheet is pulled over both of them, and then his tie comes flying out, too. A little bit later they peek out from under the sheet and, laying on their stomachs, sing something along with the rest of the group.
Then Ford creeps up, pulls off the sheet and up jumps Anthony, in his socks, trousers, and his shirt opened down the front. He then runs off stage.
The interval was after the second act. The stage was set with the tree directly in the middle of the stage. Falstaff comes dragging in, after being fished out of the Thames. The rest of the act is played out around the tree, as if it was the park. Anthony appears in a monk’s robe as the cast is playing at frightening Falstaff.
The last scene where they all sing together is really terrific and I could hear Anthony's voice very clearly. They had at least four or five curtain calls each night, and the applause went on for some time.
Later in the evening, Anthony was asked if the experience in Montepulciano, and in Falstaff itself, was a good experience, and everything he thought it would be. His answer was a definitive nod and then he said, "That, and more."