Opera Plots I - MDC Faculty Home Pages

THE story is based on Shakespeares Comedy and follows on very similar lines to the libretto of
Nicolais " Merry Wives of Windsor," with some slight alterations in the names and action - Anne
Page in this version appearing as Nannetta, and being represented as the daughter of Ford.
Act 1 takes place in the Inn at Windsor, where Falstaff treats with merriment the complaints of Dr
Caius relating to the tricks played on him by the fat Knights rascally followers, Bardolph and
Pistol. Falstaff then sends the famous duplicate love-letters to the Merry Wives, Mistress Ford and
Mistress Page, who, on receiving them, are very indignant, and arrange their amusing plot to make
a laughing-stock of their old admirer, and to bring on him the righteous wrath of the jealous Ford.
A side plot is also unfolded here, relating to Nannetta, who, though desired by her parents to
accept as a suitor old Dr Caius, is in love with a handsome but poorer lover, Fenton, and
determines to marry the latter at all costs.
Act 2 is taken up with the reception by the lively dames of their elderly would-be lover, Falstaff,
his concealment in the washing-basket on the approach of the jealous husband, and his subsequent
sousing in the river Thames.
In Act 3 the Merry Wives send a further invitation to the jolly old Knight by the hands of Dame
Quickly, who entices him to meet the ladies in Windsor Forest, where they have arranged a
Masque for the better carrying-out of their plot for his undoing. Falstaff accepts the invitation, and
arrives at the rendezvous in the disguise of Herne the Hunter; and here he is assailed by the
colleagues of the Merry Wives, who, in the guise of gnats, wasps, fairies and gnomes, tease, and
pinch, and plague him until he roars for mercy. Finally, having played out the farce, and punished
him well for his ridiculous impudence in posing as the lover of two respectable dames, the ladies
desist, and explanations and mutual pardons follow. Also, the dainty and clever Nannetta has
during the Masque succeeded in eluding her elderly and undesired admirer, Dr Caius, and, joining
her lover, Fenton, she is united to him.
175. THE MASKED BALL
Opera in Three Acts By Guiseppe Verdi
Libretto By M. Somma
First Produced Rome, February, 1849
Chief Characters Adelia, Ulrica, Riccardo, Renato, Edgar
THE scene is laid in Boston, Massachusetts, during the Colonial Period. Riccardo, Earl of
Warwick and Governor of Boston, has fallen in love with Adelia, the beautiful young wife of his
Creole Secretary, Renato, who is unaware of this state of affairs. Adelia returns the love of the
Governor ; but, full of dismay at the guilty passion she has conceived, she seeks the aid of Ulrica a
fortune-teller, who bids her gather a certain herb at midnight in a desolate spot. Riccardo
overhears this, having also visited the gipsy in disguise in order to learn his own fate, in spite of
the warnings of Renato that a serious conspiracy against his life is afoot; and he determines to
follow her. The gipsy also prophesies that the governor will shortly be assassinated by the next
person who touches his hand; and it is Renato who, unwittingly, takes his hand on coming to seek