Sir John in Love

Ralph Vaughan Williams

May 17, 2015 at 3pm
May 20, 2015 at 7:30pm
May 23, 2015 at 7:30pm
Huntington Avenue Theatre

Sir John in Love

Music by Ralph Vaughan Williams

Libretto by the composer, based on Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor

Sir John in Love is a rare delight: a sly, witty, colorful, and articulate depiction of the Bard in English opera. Vaughan Williams’s version of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor follows the exploits of the immortal Sir John Falstaff—lover, con man, charmer, tawdry knight—whose imagination and egocentricity skewer the best and worst in human nature. Add a pair of innocent young lovers, a handful of hapless suitors, plots, counterplots, and some good-natured revenge for a tale of hijinks in the grand tradition of Shakespearean comedy, set against a score rich with Elizabethan lyrics and melodies, including “Sigh no more, ladies,” and the beloved Fantasia on Greensleeves.

“If Odyssey’s sweet-tempered production is typical of what the festival has in store, the Brits should take up residence.”

– The Boston Globe

Cast and Creative

Oren Gradus
Sir John Falstaff

Michael Chioldi
Ford, a citizen of Windsor

Samuel Levine
Fenton, a young gentleman of the Court at Windsor

Megan Pachecano
Anne Page, Page’s daughter

Courtney Miller
Mrs. Ford

Mara Bonde
Mrs. Page

Cindy Sadler
Mrs. Quickly, housekeeper to Dr. Caius

George Cordes
Page, a citizen of Windsor

Matthew DiBattista
Sir Hugh Evans, a Welsh parson

James Demler
Pistol, a sharper attending on Falstaff

Jonathan Cole
Nym, a sharper attending on Falstaff

Stanley Wilson
Bardolph, a sharper attending on Falstaff

Jesse Darden
Slender, a foolish young gentleman

Sumner Thompson
Dr. Caius, a French physician

Robert Honeysucker
Host of the Garter Inn

Ethan Bremner
Shallow, a country justice

Jacob Scharfman
Rugby, Dr. Caius’s servant

Andy Papas
Peter Simple, Slender’s servant

Gil Rose
Conductor

Joshua Major
Stage Director

Ted Palés
John, Ford’s servant
Barratt Park
Robert, Ford’s servant
Erin Merceruio Nelson
Jenny Pluckpears, Nym’s sweetheart
Sophie Michaux
Alice Shortcake, Bardolph’s sweetheart
Coleman Rose
Robin, Falstaff’s page

Creative Team

Melinda Sullivan, Choreographer
Stephen Dobay, Scenic Designer
Katherine Stebbins, Costume Designer
Costumes supplied by Malabar Limited, Toronto
Rachel Padula Shufelt, Hair and Make-up Designer
Dennis Parichy, Lighting Designer

Background

Opera has a long history in England. Following the death of Purcell in 1695, English music became increasingly influenced by Italian and German tastes. Composers such as Handel and Pepusch worked for the new Hanoverian (Georgian) kings, and Italian stars such as the castratos Farinelli and Senesino competed with local talent throughout the early 1700s. Satirical ballad opera developed as a form of English stage entertainment, partly in reaction to the dominance of Italian opera, and great continental composers such as Mozart, Haydn, J. C. Bach, and Mendelssohn remarked on England’s well-established church choirs, choral societies, and orchestras around 1800.

Read the program notes