Dec. 5 – Two hundred years separate us from the birth of Giuseppe Verdi, but two hundred is also the amount of times the baritone Ambrogio Maestri has performed the Falstaff, Verdi ‘s last opera. To cross such an important threshold, Maestri will perform at the Metropolitan in New York, where the Pavia-native baritone will go on stage tomorrow with the great American conductor James Levine and director Robert Carsen, the first to stage, in the past fifty years, Falstaff at the Met. Maestri already performed at the Met in New York as the opening 2012 – 2013 season for Donzinetti’s Elisir d’amore in the role of Dulcamara. Maestri will now be engaged with Falstaff on Dec. 6 , 9, 14 , 27 and 30 and January 3 , 6 and 11 2014. The show will also be broadcast live in movie theaters around the world on December 14. The artist does not hide his pride and satisfaction: ” Having reached this milestone I can say that Falstaff is like a life partner for me, a mirror in which I see reflected my personal and artistic growth. Sir John somehow represents my conscience: every performance reflects my moods, my changes, the way I see them.” The baritone reminisced of his debut: “at 29, I was at La Scala in Milan, with conductor Riccardo Muti and director Giorgio Strehler. Since then, I have sung in more than 20 different theaters. Over the years, I began a journey of research and interpretive reading which led me to feel the character as a real alter ego. Every new production is a challenge that allows me to experiment with unusual shades.”
