The myth of the macho seducer drowns in an ocean of mockery and laughter at the Rome Opera House, where Tatjana Gürbaca’s direction transforms Giuseppe Verdi’s «Falstaff» into a reflection on power relations. In the crucial scene, while the women turn his own deceptions against the pompous protagonist, a banner appears with the historic slogan of feminism: «Tremble, tremble, the witches are back».
From Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” to Verdi’s lyrical “comedy” which borrows the plot, passing through the refined reworking of Arrigo Boito’s libretto, “Falstaff” brings the topicality of female emancipation back to the centre. The installation marks the debut in Italy of the German director Gürbaca; on the podium Michele Mariotti leads the Orchestra of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma in ironic writing, immersed in a dreamlike, at times feverish, atmosphere.
In the title role, baritone Luca Salsi gives voice and body to Sir John Falstaff, arrogant knight. Alongside him, Maria Agresta is Alice, George Petean plays Ford, Violeta Urmana is Mrs Quickly, Carmen Artaza plays Meg and Marina Monzò plays Nannetta.
Falstaff moves as a dominator, in the illusion that everything is owed to him: he tries to conquer two married women with identical love letters, convinced that he will emerge unscathed from the intrigue. But Alice and Meg recognize the deception, team up and prepare his humiliation: in the most memorable scene the boastful and greedy seducer ends up hidden in a laundry basket and thrown into the Thames. Those who thought they controlled the game were overwhelmed by ridicule.
In the forest the banner, unfurled without ostentation, broadens the sense of mockery. The witches to which it alludes, feared in the collective imagination because they are considered autonomous or inconvenient, here become a symbol of recognition and reclamation. The quote recalls a season of conquests and leaves a question: what remains of those battles and what language can speak to women today, struggling with persistent stereotypes and new forms of discrimination?
On stage, women don’t just defend themselves: they act, organize themselves and become protagonists, revealing the fragility of an authority based on presumption. Even the costumes designed by Silke Willrett evoke a turning point, while laughter undermines a power that is believed to be untouchable.
The mockery is not just a punishment: it is the moment in which those who seemed to dictate the rules lose control of the situation. But the past of protests, chants and great hopes does not just come back on stage: it demands an account in the present of the promises still to be kept. Falstaff, convinced that he can manipulate anyone, becomes a symbol of male confidence with feet of clay.
Because witches, at least in the theater, don’t need spells. All they need to do is come to an agreement, know the rules of the game and finally decide to change them.
