# Carlos Kleiber Comments On Falstaff



## Xavier (Jun 7, 2012)

> "Now the Met is doing Falstaff, which is a jewel-more to read and listen to (on grand old recordings) than to see and hear performed I find.
> 
> A lot of the music is just too beautiful for the situations on stage which, it is, well, 'accompanying.'
> 
> http://www.metorchestramusicians.or...th-carlos-kleiber-elusive-titan-of-the-podium



I agree 110%


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Me too.............


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

I wonder if it's possible to get a recording "Falstaff Without Words"? I'd buy it.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

I think you guys (along with Kleiber) totally miss the point of Falstaff. It is the perfect fusion of words and music. The libretto is one of the best and Verdi sets it perfectly. Just listen to the orchestra laugh along with the Merry Wives! The score would have been impossible without the libretto.
Falstaff is the nearest thing to operatic perfection since Mozart and Da Ponte. Don't touch!!


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

isn't Kleiber saying he prefered to listen to it than watch it?


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

DavidA said:


> I think you guys (along with Kleiber) totally miss the point of Falstaff. It is the perfect fusion of words and music. The libretto is one of the best and Verdi sets it perfectly. Just listen to the orchestra laugh along with the Merry Wives! The score would have been impossible without the libretto.
> Falstaff is the nearest thing to operatic perfection since Mozart and Da Ponte. Don't touch!!


I think you're missing the point of how to post on threads without criticising the comments of others. Kleiber is talking about the orchestration in this case, and so are we.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I'm not sure just what point Kleiber is making here. When he says that _Falstaff_ is "more to read and listen to than to see and hear performed," is he merely expressing disappointment with most of the stage presentations he has seen, or is he saying that the score is so subtle and detailed that any staging distracts us from fully hearing or appreciating it? And if the latter, would this be a good reason not to stage it, or not to attend a performance? Aren't there other operas with rich and complex scores of which the same might be said? Should we then stop staging _Meistersinger_ or _Tristan_? _Pelleas et Melisande_? _Wozzeck_? He says the music is "too beautiful for the situations" which it is "well, 'accompanying.'" Does he think that it's the function of operatic music to "accompany" the stage action? That seems to me a peculiar view of the role of music in opera - in fact, a demotion of music from its critical role in defining and justifying the stage action, which in opera is apt to be pretty bare-boned without it.

I have experienced Falstaff both on recordings and in the theater, and have found it enormously enjoyable from either perspective. With all due respect to Mr. Kleiber, I find his remarks strange and not useful. On the other hand I think DavidA's defense of _Falstaff_ as a unified work of art - a supremely great work of art - is right on point, and I don't feel he was out to criticize anyone.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

> "Now the Met is doing Falstaff, which is a jewel-more to read and listen to (on grand old recordings) than to see and hear performed I find. A lot of the music is just too beautiful for the situations on stage which, it is, well, 'accompanying.' And I could never get up any enthusiasm for the final fugue nor the bits (where they're beating the old guy) that lead up to it. (My friend Riccardo Muti says I don't understand what Verdi meant. I guess he's right."


Kleiber here is simply being conversational in a letter correspondence and I think many would find some agreement with these views. It's got me thinking what a concert version would be like. i.e. without the frenetic stomping around the stage.

Just a word on Kleiber - I'd seen quite a few operas at Covent Garden before coming to a Kleiber-Domingo-Otello. Truly I'd never heard an orchestra sound that way. Utterly awesome.


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