Tune into WRTI on Saturday, Sept. 19 at 1 p.m. to hear the LA Opera’s 2026 production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff. This staging of Verdi’s beloved comic opera is the first American feature in this year’s WFMT Opera Series, and one of conductor James Conlon’s final appearances in a 20-year career with the LA Opera.
In Falstaff, Sir John Falstaff — Shakespeare’s boastful but beloved knight — has racked up a significant bill at the Garter Inn. To secure funds, he hatches a plan to seduce Alice Ford and Meg Page, both wives of well-to-do men. Realizing that Falstaff has sent the same love letter to both of them, Alice and Meg — along with Alice’s husband, Flagstaff’s two disgruntled henchmen, and Mistress Quickly — hatch a series of creative schemes to embarrass and admonish the carousing Falstaff.
In this production, bass-baritone Craig Colclough is Sir John Falstaff; tenor Nathan Bowles is Dr. Caius, tenor Yuntong Han and bass Vinícius Costa are Bardolph and Pistol; mezzo-soprano Sarah Saturnino is Meg Page; soprano Nicole Heaston is Alice Ford; mezzo-soprano Hyona Kim is Mistress Quickly; soprano Deanna Breiwick is Nannetta; tenor Anthony León is Fenton; and baritone Ernesto Petti is Ford. James Conlon conducts the LA Opera Orchestra and Chorus.
Craig Colclough as Sir John Falstaff
Nathan Bowles as Dr. Caius
Yuntong Han as Bardolph
Vinícius Costa as Pistol
Sarah Saturnino as Meg Page
Nicole Heaston as Alice Ford
Hyona Kim as Mistress Quickly
Deanna Breiwick as Nannetta
Anthony León as Fenton
Ernesto Petti as Ford
James Conlon conducts the LA Opera and Chorus.