This is taken from a 1993 revival of Zeffirelli's 1965 Met staging, but little of the finesse and humour of the original remains in this unsubtle performance full of pratfalls and mugging. Here is a Falstaff of a traditional kind from which more discerning directors such as Friedrich, Ponnelle and Eyre have relieved us, merely a vehicle for individual performers, all doing their own thing.
Unfortunately some have seen better days, Plishka offers a coarse Falstaff to make up for a voice very much in reduced circumstances. Freni frankly looks too old for Alice Ford, and her wobble is distressing, but she does still act delightfully with her twinkling eyes as she gulls the Fat Knight. Horne is very much Horne as herself having a high old time, not Verdi's let alone Shakespeare's Quickly, and again the singing hardly provides much aural pleasure. As Ford, Pola is worse, a coarse-grained singer and a dull actor when compared with his rivals on video – Stilwell for Solti, Panerai for Karajan and Nucci for Giulini. Compensations come only from Graham's fresh Meg and from the young lovers, sung by Bonney and Lopardo, who bring a touch of class to proceedings.
Levine's conducting is heavy-handed, no match for Solti or, above all, Giulini. The orchestra often sound too loud vis-a-vis the singers, but Large is as usual expert in having his cameras in the right place at the right time. If you want a cleverly choreographed film of Falstaff Friedrich's from Solti is the one to have, but the version that fully matches Verdi's and Boito's mature masterpiece is the Eyre/Giulini performance from Covent Garden. Eyre, with his Shakespearian experience, gives us a believable Windsor peopled by real individuals about whom we care. Giulini unfolds the score lovingly as the autumnal comedy it surely is. Bruson's Falstaff, when seen as well as heard, is a ripe picture of a rueful, cynical old soldier with a touch of Quixote about him and one sung with the utmost attention to note and textual values. The rest of the cast is almost in his class and not matched elsewhere, though Taddei as Falstaff and Panerai as Ford aren't to be overlooked in the Karajan performance. AB