We begin our series of operas from the WFMT radio network with a season from London’s Royal Opera House on this week’s Sunday Opera (6/2 3:00 p.m.) with Giuseppe Verdi’s “Fallstaff.” Bryn Terfel leads this stellar cast as Sir John, and joining him are Marie McLaughlin and Ana Maria Martinez as the formidable “wives” Meg Page and Alice Ford. Helping them to thwart Falstaff is Marie-Nicole Lemiuex as Mistress Quickly. The young lovers, Nanetta and Fenton, are Anna Prohaska and Frederic Antoun, and the jealous Ford is sung by Simon Keenlyside.
As always, Michael Kownacky will be with you after the opera, and this time, he’s bringing you more music based on Shakespeare. He’ll begin with Sir Edward Elgar’s Falstaff Symphonic Study and follow that with Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s adaptation of the incidental music written by Felix Mendelssohn for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” used in the 1935 film version.
