Falstaff is an opera in three acts by the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV, parts 1 and 2. The work premiered on 9 February 1893 at La Scala, Milan. Falstaff was the last of Verdi's 28 operas, his second comedy, and his third work based on a Shakespeare play, following Macbeth and Otello. The plot revolves around the thwarted, sometimes farcical, efforts of the fat knight, Sir John Falstaff, to seduce two married women to gain access to their husbands' wealth. The premiere was greeted with enormous enthusiasm, but after the initial performances the work fell into neglect: many operagoers felt that it lacked the full-blooded melodies of the best of Verdi's previous operas. The conductor Arturo Toscanini strongly disagreed, and insisted on its revival at La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera in New York from the late 1890s into the next century. The work is now part of the regular operatic repertory. Singers closely associated with the title role have included Victor Maurel (the first Falstaff), Mariano Stabile, Giuseppe Valdengo, Tito Gobbi, Geraint Evans and Bryn Terfel.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falstaff_(opera)

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1068:

Having been pardoned by the regent Eudokia Makrembolitissa for attempting to usurp the throne, Romanos IV Diogenes married her to become Byzantine emperor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanos_IV_Diogenes

1785:

The Times, the first newspaper of that name, began publication in London as The Daily Universal Register. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times

1810:

Lachlan Macquarie became Governor of New South Wales, eventually playing a major role in the shaping of the social, economic and architectural development of the colony in Australia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lachlan_Macquarie

1945:

Second World War: The German Luftwaffe launched Operation Bodenplatte in an attempt to cripple Allied air forces in the Low Countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bodenplatte

2009:

A nightclub fire in Bangkok, Thailand, killed 66 patrons celebrating the new year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santika_Club_fire

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

maladroit: Not adroit; awkward, clumsy, inept. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/maladroit

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

I believe in aristocracy … — if that is the right word, and if a democrat may use it. Not an aristocracy of power, based upon rank and influence, but an aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate and the plucky. Its members are to be found in all nations and classes, and all through the ages, and there is a secret understanding between them when they meet. They represent the true human tradition, the one permanent victory of our queer race over cruelty and chaos. Thousands of them perish in obscurity, a few are great names. They are sensitive for others as well as for themselves, they are considerate without being fussy, their pluck is not swankiness but the power to endure, and they can take a joke.   --E. M. Forster‎‎ https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/E._M._Forster