Falstaff

Simon will sing Ford in six performances of 'Falstaff' at the Salzburg Summer Festival in August 2023.

To see the production photo gallery, click on the link below and scroll down to 'Photos and Videos'. Click on the first photo to open the gallery.

Official Photo Gallery

Falstaff will be broadcast on the 3Sat channel on Saturday 19 August at 20.15 hrs. This channel is available to watch in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

Link to 3Sat

The opera will also be broadcast on Austrian TV channel ORF III on Saturday 03 September at 21.45 hours and available to watch afterwards until 10 September. This channel is usually only available in Austria.

Link to ORF III

Part of the Salzburg production can be seen in this video on You Tube

SOUNDBITES

"...Am meisten Spaß hat offenkundig Simon Keenlyside, der im Spätherbst seiner Karriere den Ford als krausen Kleinbürger mit Hosenbund kurz unter den Achselhöhlen gibt – und die Figur dank Marthaler an die
Knallcharge verrät...."

"..The most fun was obviously had by Simon Keenlyside, who, in the late autumn of his career, portrays Ford as a quirky petit bourgeois, with a waistband just below his armpits - and, thanks to Marthaler, reveals the character to be an absurd clown..."

"...Aus sich heraus ging den ganzen Abend eigentlich nur Simon Keenlyside als Ford, der seine ungezügelte Wut darüber, dass Falstaff ihm seine Frau Alice ausspannen will, in donnernde Töne legte und in eine Raserei über die ganze Bühnenbreite des Festspielhauses, dabei in seinem grauen Anzug aber wie ein biederer, schlecht gekleideter Buchhalter aussah...."

"...Simon Keenlyside as Ford was the only one who, during the whole evening, really came out of his shell. He turned his unbridled rage at Falstaff wanting to steal his wife Alice into thunderous tones and into a fury across the entire width of the Festspielhaus stage - although in his grey suit he looked like a bourgeois badly dressed accountant..."

"..Nahezu ebenbürtig ist ihm stimmlich Simon Keenlyside als sein Gegenspieler Ford..."

"..Nearly equal to him (Gerald Finley) was Simon Keenlyside as Ford...."

"...So richtig im theatralen Saft stand freilich niemand, auch nicht Simon Keenlyside als anfangs recht raustimmiger Ford, der sich zwar konsolidieren konnte, im Verdi-Fach aber eigentlich immer ein bisschen über seine Verhältnisse gesungen hat. Dafür schien er als einer von wenigen Spaß an der grotesken Formung seines Charakters zu haben: Sein Ford ist... eine Art Nerd, der wie die meisten Männer auf der Bühne den Hosenbund in Höhe des Brustbeins trägt...."

"..Of course, no-one was really in the theatrical vein,not even Simon Keenlyside as Ford, who initially sounded rather rough but improved later, although he always sings above his possibilities in Verdi roles. On the other hand, he seemed to be one of the few people who enjoyed the grotesque change to his character. His Ford is...a kind of nerd who, like most men on stage, wears his waistband at breastbone height..."

"..Simon Keenlyside sang den Ford mehr mit Persönlichkeit als mit Stimme.."

"...Simon Keenlyside sang Ford more with his personality than with his voice..."

"...Zugegeben: will man der Oper folgen, muss man höllisch aufpassen, weil das Bühnengeschehen nicht unbedingt immer den Fokus auf die Singenden legt, die Vielfalt der optischen Reize behindert das Hören - den besten Widerstand dagegen zeigten die unverwüstliche Elena Stikhina als Alice Ford, die leuchtende  Giuglia Semenzato als Nannetta und Simon Keenlyside als rasender Ford...."

"..Admittedly: if you want to follow the opera, you have to pay attention like hell, because the stage action does not necessarily always focus on the singers, the variety of visual stimuli impedes listening - the best resistance to this was shown by the resilient Elena Stikhina as Alice Ford, the luminous Giuglia Semenzato as Nannetta and Simon Keenlyside as the frenzied Ford...."

"...Fords Lobgesang auf die Eifersucht im dritten Akt ist ein absurdes Highlight der Oper, von Simon Keenlyside hinreissend als einen Akt psychischer Entgleisung gespielt und gesungen...."

"..Ford's paean to jealousy in Act III is an absurdist highlight of the opera, ravishingly played and sung by Simon Keenlyside as an act of psychic derangement..."

"..Der große Eifersuchtsmonolog von Ford (robust: Simon Keenlyside) hat etwas so bedrohlich Existenzielles, dass ihm mit Scherz und Ironie nicht beizukommen ist. Selbstmitleid vermischt sich mit Abscheu vor der Ehefrau, ja vor allen Frauen. Verdi bürdet hier dem Ehrenmann Ford einen musikalischen Ausdruck auf, der in seiner dunklen Tragik — das wunderbare Hornmotiv, die starken Unisono-Gesten der Streicher — aus „Othello“ oder „Simone Boccanegra“ zu kommen scheint. Die Musik klingt nicht komisch distanziert, sondern echt „durchlitten“...."

"...Ford's great monologue of jealousy (a robust Simon Keenlyside) has something so threateningly existential that it cannot be dealt with by jokes and irony. Self-pity is mixed with disgust for the wife, indeed for all women. Verdi imposes a musical expression on Ford, the man of honour, which in its dark tragedy - the wonderful horn motif, the strong unison gestures of the strings - seems to come from "Othello" or "Simone Boccanegra". The music does not sound comically distanced, but genuinely "suffered through"...."

"...Den Ford legte Simon Keenlyside als unbeholfenen Spießer an und stattete ihn mit einer zur eifersüchtigen Natur der Rolle passenden stimmlichen Rauheit aus, wobei er stets auf eine differenzierte Gestaltung achtete. Darüber hinaus stellte er komödiantisches Talent unter Beweis – er war auch scheinbar der einzige, der in diesem Regiekonzept wirklich Komödie spielen durfte...."

"...Simon Keenlyside plays Ford as a bumbling bourgeois and endowed him with a vocal roughness to match the jealous nature of the role, always taking care to differentiate his delivery. In addition, he demonstrated comedic talent - he was also apparently the only one who was really allowed to play comedy in this directorial concept..."

"...British baritone Simon Keenlyside was the unlikely Ford (no program credit listed for this role), given that Ford was played with silent film comedy exaggeration, together with which he managed some fairly extreme physical comedy. Unlike Gerald Finley’s Falstaff, he was not aloof from his role, but right there to make us realize that we were on a movie set, a place where yet another idea of high art reigns..."

"...Usually, I am a great admirer of Simon Keenlyside. The baritone has infinite qualities and my personal liking for him might have softened my eyes towards him for most of the night. However, even I have to admit that things were far from ideal. To begin with, his costumes were extremely unsuitable to his body. Keenlyside really cannot pull off high-waisted pants. Moreover, his voice was like Baumgartner’s. It was less affected by the heavy orchestra, but it also ended up highlighting a series of higher harmonics that are not as pleasing or important as they should be. His aria in the second act almost worked scenically, but the sound was a waste of a great singer who, otherwise, can phrase everything like a nightingale...."

"...The singers were all good, but hardly a vintage team. Gerald Finley (Falstaff) and Simon Keenlyside (Ford) both sounded their 63/64 years and tried their best not to look bored..."

"..Verdi's 'Falstaff' unfortunately had few highlights at the Salzburg Festival. One of them was Simon Keenlyside's both singing and theatrical virtuoso tour de force about the growth and reasons of one of the seven mortal sins.."

"...Simon Keenlyside might have achieved a finer realisation of Ford had he not been presented visually as a harmless elderly grotesque, instead of as a figure of dangerous patriarchal authority...."

The photos in the first gallery below are reproduced with permission from the Salzburg Festival. Photos 1-6 are ©SF/Ruth Walz, photos 7-9 are ©SF/Marco Borrelli