Sir John in Love review

Of all Shakespeare’s characters, only Sir John Falstaff has inspired so many operas. Alongside accounts of his amorous adventures by Salieri, Nicolai, Balfe, Verdi and Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ four-act comedy, Sir John in Love, presents an affectionate portrait of the Bard’s Fat Knight – one that places the eponymous old rogue within a wide social canvas encompassing the gentry, bourgeoisie and servants of Windsor.

Vaughan Williams truncated The Merry Wives of Windsor, assimilating text from other Shakespeare plays and Elizabethan poets, but retained the play’s 20 named roles, filling out minor characters such as Sir Hugh Evans, Dr Caius and Slender. The result is an emphasis on lively ensembles for the colourful characters rather than show-stopping arias. 

Sir John in Love (which premiered at the Royal College of Music in 1929) is thus ideal fare for a company with a host of talented singers at its disposal.

Harry Fehr’s British Youth Opera production at Opera Holland Park eschews ‘Merrie England’, setting the action in 1950s Windsor. Nate Gibson’s economical sets do fine work in sketching locales – the irascible Dr Caius’ surgery, the Pages’ drawing room, the Garter Inn. Stagecraft is slick as the cast unobtrusively rearranges props to effect transformations that are further smoothed by Chuma Emembolu’s lighting, while the buck-basket scene and the boxing-glove ‘duel’ between Anne Page’s would-be suitors are choreographed with a sharp ear for the score.

Moreover, Fehr makes pertinent use of the front runway, evoking movement and milieu – as when the Windsor townsfolk spill through Ford’s house in a hunt for Sir John the cuckold-maker – but also creating moments of intimacy, as when Anne and Fenton declare their passion or Sir John sings his own witty but tender love song. He’s a pitiful figure indeed, stranded alone during the Windsor Forest ritual – a masque of hooded cloaks and flickering candles.

In the title role, Johannes Moore captures both the old Knight’s absurdity and gallantry – and admits a chink of vulnerability. Jacob Bettinelli’s bass-baritone glows in Ford’s histrionic soliloquy but softens lyrically when asking his wife to pardon him. Windsor’s womenfolk are spirited and enterprising. As Mistresses Page and Ford, Eva Gheorghiu and Lexie Moon have fun reading Falstaff’s love letters. And when they are joined by Nancy Holt’s Mistress Quickley, the mischief knows no bounds. The lovely colour of Grace Marie Wyatt’s soprano gives substance to Anne Page – no wonder Steve van der Linden’s gracious Fenton is smitten. 

Cast and chorus prove themselves fine singers and actors, and they are supported with a fitting lightness of touch by the Southbank Sinfonia under Marit Strindlund.

Vaughan Williams prefaced his score with the hope that "it may be possible to consider that Verdi’s masterpiece does not exhaust all the possibilities of Shakespeare’s genius". British Youth Opera, with charm and sincerity, certainly fulfils that hope.