back Content In order to maintain his well-fed belly despite the yawning emptiness in his purse, the mischievous knight Falstaff writes identical love letters to two wealthy ladies. But they catch wind of the hoax.
“Wer zuletzt lacht, lacht am besten” – with these probably most beautiful last words on stage, the 80-year-old Giuseppe Verdi retired in 1893 and at the end of his opera career composed a musical comedy based on Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” that was as unconventional as it was enchanting.