Verdi
Original Air Date: 04/05/1975
Levine; MacNeil, Lear, Stewart, Barbieri, Valente, Ahlstedt
MOD Audio SID.18510103
This performance is Levine’s first Falstaff broadcast and Barbieri’s penultimate company broadcast (she returns for Trittico (minus Frugola) 2 years later. MacNeil is a very good Falstaff which I think is his only run in the part– he is a stellar Ford on a Chicago broadcast with Gobbi in 1958. Lear is in better form than her husband– Stewart is not really a Verdian, and the monologue is among the showiest music in the opera.