Falstaff: Royal Opera House (Haitink)

Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel takes the title role in this production of Verdi's last opera, based on Shakespeare's 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' and 'Henry IV'. The fun-loving Falstaff has his eye on two married women and writes a love letter to each of them. The two women compare letters and decide the writer must be punished for his roguish ways, drawing up a plot which will see him hiding from angry husbands in a basket, getting thrown into the Thames, and dressing up in a pair of antlers for a secret midnight tryst in the middle of the forest.

Director: Graham Vick
Director: Humphrey Burton
Producer: Sue Judd
Conductor: Bernard Haitink
Music: Giuseppe Verdi
Presenter: James Naughtie
Performer: Bryn Terfel
Performer: Roberto Frontali
Performer: Kenneth Tarver
Performer: Robin Leggate
Performer: Peter Hoare
Performer: Gwynne Howell
Performer: Barbara Frittoli
Performer: Desiree Rancatore
Performer: Bernadette Manca di Nissa
Performer: Diana Montague