Chicago Opera Theater to Present the Chicago Premiere of Antonio Salieri’s FALSTAFF, OSSIA LE TRE BURLE

Chicago Opera Theater (COT) will present the Chicago premiere of Antonio Salieri’s Falstaff, ossia Le tre burle (Falstaff, or The Three Tricks) this December at the Studebaker Theater in the Fine Arts Building, 410 S. Michigan Avenue.

The production will be performed Wednesday, December 3 at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, December 6 and 7 at 3:00 p.m. Tickets range from $50–$150 and are available now.

Directed by Robin Guarino and conducted by Christine Brandes, both making their company debuts, Falstaff stars Christian Pursell as the boastful knight at the center of Salieri’s comic tale. The cast also includes Vanessa Becerra, Andrew Morstein, Tzytle Steinman, Peter Morgan, Laureano Quant, and Denis Vélez. The opera will be performed in Italian with English supertitles.

Premiered in 1799, Salieri’s Falstaff draws inspiration from Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor and follows the misadventures of an arrogant knight who attempts to seduce two married women, only to be undone by their clever schemes. For this staging, Guarino and designers Jessica Pabst (costumes) and Andrew Boyce (sets) relocate the story to a modern resort on the southern coast of Italy, offering a sun-drenched visual escape from Chicago’s winter.

The production also commemorates the 200th anniversary of Salieri’s death in 1825. To contextualize the composer’s legacy, COT and Steppenwolf Theatre will co-host a free public discussion at the Driehaus Museum on Wednesday, November 19, exploring “The Real Salieri” versus his dramatized rivalry with Mozart in Amadeus. The panel will include Lawrence Edelson (COT General Director), Christine Brandes, Audrey Francis (Steppenwolf Artistic Director), and Jonathan L. Green (Steppenwolf dramaturg for Amadeus), with live excerpts of Salieri’s music.

Coinciding with the premiere, COT will introduce its new “Discover COT” initiative, designed to attract new audiences to opera. Up to 100 seats per performance will be available at 50% off for opening night and 25% off for subsequent performances for first-time ticket buyers who purchase before November 22 using code DISCOVERCOT.

“Falstaff is the perfect entry point to COT’s approach to opera—visually striking, emotionally charged, and musically engaging,” said Lawrence Edelson, COT’s General Director. “Through the Discover COT program, we hope to welcome more Chicagoans to experience our work for the first time.”