Falstaff

Multiple showings between March 12, 2027 and March 14, 2027 — dates and times vary. Visit the Straz Center website for the full schedule and to purchase tickets. The last of Verdi’s 26 operas, Falstaff is the product of a composer in the twilight of his career – age 80, no less – but able to craft a Shakespearean masterpiece to top his resume. This comic farce follows the escapades of an overweight knight trying to seduce two women to gain access to their husbands’ fortunes. Verdi ends the opera, and his musical life, not looking forward but back, with a fugue worthy of Bach. Opera Tampa’s new production embraces the wit and fast pace of a work innovative in its time, where the orchestra abandons the stop-and-go pattern of traditional Italian opera for a continuous musical commentary. Venue: Ferguson Hall