Karajan conducts Verdi: Falstaff

"Tutto nel mondo è burla": All the world's a joke. The final words of Verdi's Falstaff bring down the curtain on one of the warmest and wisest comedies in all music – just as they brought a joyous ending to the 79-year-old composer's incredible six-decade career. Herbert von Karajan, too, brought a lifetime's operatic experience to this 1982 Salzburg Festival performance, which stars the veteran Italian baritone Giuseppe Taddei as Shakespeare's fat knight and Christa Ludwig as Mistress Quickly. With Karajan's own, deeply faithful direction and sumptuous period settings by the great Günther Schneider-Siemssen, it's as gorgeous to see as it is to hear.

Soloists: 

Francisco Araiza (Tenor), Federico Davià (Bass), Piero de Palma (Tenor), Raina Kabaivanska (Soprano), Christa Ludwig (Mezzo-Soprano), Rolando Panerai (Baritone), Janet Perry (Soprano), Trudeliese Schmidt (Mezzo-Soprano), Giuseppe Taddei (Baritone), Heinz Zednik (Tenor)

Ensembles: 

Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor, Wiener Philharmoniker

Conductor: 

Herbert von Karajan