Falstaff
Hmmm, what to say about Falstaff? It was a decent opera with a distractingly stupid plot. There was nothing particularly noteworthy, no arias to hum after the fact, but still, it was classic Verdi structure and composition (without the genius of his more famous Rigoletto, Otello and La Traviata). One of the things I love most about the way Verdi writes is that he treats the voices like woodwinds, especially the female voices. It's very distinctive to his work, and, as a result, a Verdi soprano has to be really light on top to make it work. Tonight we had the pleasure of seeing one of my favorite Verdi sopranos, JiYoung Lee. It wasn't the main part, and it wasn't her stunning rendition of Rigoletto's Caro Nome (which is still hands down the best performance by a soprano I have ever seen live) but it was nice to hear her voice. It was also, as always, great to be at the opera with my dad, who may have captured it best when we left the Kennedy Center: "That was pretty good, but I think I like operas better when everyone dies at the end."