Five fast Falstaff facts!
1. Falstaff is adapted from Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV. Verdi wrote two other operas based on Shakespeare plays – Macbeth and Otello.
2. Falstaff was the last opera written by Verdi when he was 80 years old.
3. Out of Verdi’s 26 operas – only 2, including Falstaff, were comedies.
4. Another operatic version of Falstaff was written before Verdi’s opera, by the Viennese classical composer Antonio Salieri (1750-1825).
5. Elgar composed an orchestral work titled Falstaff – Symphonic Study based on the character of Falstaff.