Falstaff at the MET
Radically giddy
…More irresistible still was Daniele Rustioni, whose conducting was surely the secret ingredient that lent this already accomplished ensemble cast that certain extra something. As dynamic on the podium as the sound he got from the performers (at times he seemed from my vantage point to be jumping up and down with excitement), Rustioni had the singers and orchestra in fine form, and the audience eating out of his hand.
Taking the stage for their curtain calls, Rustioni and the cast of Falstaff seemed aware of the magic they had created; they grinned, danced, teased each other and the audience, inviting us to share in the radically giddy message of the opera’s finale: “The whole world is a joke… but he who laughs last has the best laugh of all!”
Parterre Box, Sylvia Korman