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Translating Shakespeare to a new style is a theatrical tradition as time honored as the Bard himself. In the last couple of years, Oregon Shakespeare Festival has produced Coriolanus in Portland with an all-female cast amid a dystopian warehouse hellscape, and Romeo and Juliet in Ashland, inspired by houseless communities in today’s West Coast cities, like a socially conscious update of Baz Luhrmann’s iconic 1996 film adaptation. Giuseppe Verdi adapted several Shakespeare plays into 19th century Italian operas.
Somewhere in the middle of all these adaptations’ places in the Shakespearean cosmos lies Portland Opera’s newest production, the 2024–25 season closer Falstaff, Verdi’s take on Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. The company last staged Falstaff in 2013, but now it’s flashing back to the ’80s, with Lord Falstaff seeking to seduce two merry wives at a vibrant country club.
“I love Falstaff, I love Verdi,” says Alfrelynn Roberts, Portland Opera’s director of artistic planning and operations. “It’s not necessarily a great first opera because there’s a lot going on, but it’s so typically Shakespeare with the misunderstandings of love, and it’s definitely a timeless story that audiences will enjoy.”
Roberts brainstormed the idea of a more modern setting with director David Radamés Toro. “What I felt was important was the class structure in the opera,” Toro says. “This story could take place in a time without cellphones, and it’s very visual. Well into the late ’80s, the upper class dressed to go everywhere.”
The production’s fashion begins somewhere in the preppy realm and finishes closer to the circus; a concept illustration for Falstaff shows him clad from head to toe in an argyle rainbow. Toro highlights the importance of Falstaff standing out with his particular excess of hues.
“Falstaff is that dude who can afford dues for the pool, but not for the whole club,” he says. “He still dresses like it’s the ’70s.”
While the music will remain more traditionally orchestral, and the Italian libretto will stay intact, the visual style onstage will be undeniably more modern with the addition of an electric guitar to the orchestra.
Portland Opera’s most recent production, The Shining, dazzled with its use of projected backdrops by designer David Murakami. Even in 2023’s Rusalka and The Marriage of Figaro, Portland Opera relied more on physical design elements like furniture articles and painted backdrops. With Murakami returning to design layered projection backdrops for Falstaff, the company is taking a bold step forward into the future.
“I think that is kind of the way things are going,” says Christina Post, Portland Opera’s marketing director. “There’s a lot more openness to multimedia [among] opera companies of our size in the United States and around the world.”
While the production’s dates are set for the Keller Auditorium, it won’t be until May 8 that rehearsals will take place there. Until then, Portland Opera is making use of its brand-new company headquarters at the World Trade Center for this purpose. One such rehearsal on April 26 saw Toro directing Darren Drone (as Falstaff) and Stephen Gaertner (as Ford), with a handful of appropriate props: a bag of golf clubs, a table laden with bottles, and dollar bills with 20th century designs.
The World Trade Center Theatre will open to the public in December with Everest, a story of the 1996 mountaineering disaster told with animated backdrops but no live singers. “It’s prerecorded, like a graphic novel come to life,” Post says.
Roberts says that Portland Opera invites attendees to dress in ’80s period costumes for Falstaff‘s opening night on May 10. Toro compares this to audiences at his most recent production, Zorro at Opera San Jose, coming out to the theater in themed cosplay, like a child with a Zorro mask. Roberts is herself also traveling the country, together with general director Sue Dixon, to scope out interesting and timely new productions for future seasons.
“We were looking for something that was upbeat to start, to celebrate [the 60th anniversary],” Roberts says, but it’s safe to say that ending the season on an upbeat note will prove a much-needed balm against the real world’s increasing darkness and uncertainty.
SEE IT: Falstaff at the Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St., 503-248-4335, portland5.com. 7:30 pm Saturday, May 10; Friday, May 16; and 2:30 pm Sunday, May 18. $31–$131.