On 18th, 20th, 25th and 26th of February on its Main Stage the Bolshoi Company presents a premiere of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera "Falstaff". The famous La Scala production by George Streler is being adapted to the Main Stage by Marina Bianki’s creative team. Verdi’s masterpiece, harmonious and stylish, came so much to the Bolshoi art management’s liking that it immediately entered the repertoire. By the way, “Falstaff” remains the only guest production in the Bolshoi’s history which, unlike, for example, "Adriana Lecouvreur" and " La Forza del Destino", didn’t have to be happy with the position of a guest performance.

Verdi’s last opera was written on Àrrigo Boito’s libretto after Shakespeare’s comedy " The Merry Wives of Windsor " and interludes from the historical chronicle " Henry IY ". This opera topped the career of the eighty-year old composer as well as totalled the century and a half long tradition of the Italian opera - buffo. Central to the opera is the colourful image of Falstaff, an old fox and a Lovelace well advanced in years, masterly portrayed by the great Italian composer as well as musical images of merry wives of Windsor. The opera musical line is dynamic in many respects due to a good number of vocal recitatives. This exciting innovation let him abandon cantilena which till then was traditional for the Italian opera. The world premiere was held at La Scala in 1893 and grew into a grandiose celebration in honour of the composer.

Georgio Streler, the world-known actor and director, the founder of the first Italian stationary theatre, is quite familiar to our public. Moscow has seen his legendary " Arlekino – the Servant of Two Masters " two times – in 1960 and 2001. Working on it Streler most aptly and appropriately revived the techniques of Del Arte comedy. The production travelled all over the world. Streler’s theatre is based on a clever combination of national acting traditions and psychological realism principles. His productions are subtle and appealing, being neither placardy nor moralistic. The list of his works includes plays by Bertold Breght, with whom he was on friendly terms, plays by Goldony, Shakespeare and Chekhov, Pirandello and Becket – over 200 productions.

If you take 1947 as the starting point of his opera directing career the number of productions amounts to 50, with Mozart being his favourite composer. He mounted " Falstaff " in 1980 in co-operation with his well-established colleague stage designer Ezio Fridgerio. The production is, undoubtedly, a pearl of the world musical theatre art of the twentieth century. It’s worth mentioning that one of Fridgerio’s latest works "Un Ballo in Maschera" directed by Andrey Konchalovsky was mounted at Ìàriinsky Theatre.

The history of "Falstaff" in the Bolshoi starts as early as 1897 when it was brought in by an Italian troupe invited for the occasion. In 1962 the opera was produced by Alexandr Melik-Pashaev and Boris Pokrovsky. Vadim Ryndin made the sets and costumes. The production was packed with stars: Alexey Ivanov sang the part of Falstaff, Pavel Lisitsian appeared as Ford, Galina Vishnevskaya sang the part of his wife Alice, Irina Arkhipova performed Meg. Nevertheless, the production was of a short life - only two seasons - and never became a repertoire one.

The interest to the opera can be partly explained by the fact that its numerous ensembles provide an opportunity for both eminent and young soloists to be shown to their best advantage. Yury Nechaev and Sergey Moskalkov (Falstaff), Viktor Mitushkin (Ford), Lolita Semenina and Olga Kondina from Petersburg rehearsing the part of Alice Ford, Elena Manistina and Alexandra Durseneva working on the part of Mrs. Quickly, Svetlana Belokon and Elena Novak going to sing Meg, Vsevolod Grivnov, Andrey Dunaev and Marat Galiakhmetov as Fenton, they all have started rehearsing with Àlexandr Vedernikov, who decided to master the Verdi scores.