28 Sep 2005

Entranced by a heartbreakingly magical Verdi

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/music/ny-etmet4443338sep27,0,2305436.story?coll=ny-music-print

falstaff_Met.jpg
[Photo: Marty Sohl / The Metropolitan Opera]
By Marion Lignana Rosenberg [Newsday, 27 September 2005]


Sir Isaiah Berlin deemed Verdi the last of the great "naive" composers: simple, un-self-conscious, concealed by his work. There is truth to Sir Isaiah's claim, but it withers before the bittersweet fancy of "Falstaff" (1893), crafted by the 79-year-old Verdi as his farewell to the stage.