This revival of Falstaff marks Antonio Pappano's first foray into Italian opera since he took over as Covent Garden's music director at the start of the season. In some respects, he is throwing himself in at the deep end. Verdi's astonishing final masterpiece is one of the greatest challenges a conductor can face. Pappano, though often electrifying, does not always surmount its difficulties.
His interpretation is thrilling in its vitality, no question. Energy surges through every bar, from the huge musical guffaw with which the opera opens to the all-embracing fugue that forms its climax and its close. There is a blinding clarity to the orchestral detail throughout, with every instrumental line painstakingly, yet effortlessly exposed. This Toscanini-ish quality also extends, by and large, to the cast's diction, with the exception of Soile Isokoski's Alice, who has a habit of dropping her consonants, you can hear every single word.
Yet something is missing. Written when Verdi was in his late 70s, Falstaff is essentially a valedictory work that affirms life on the brink of mortality. Humour, throughout, is entwined with an almost unendurable sadness. A truly great performance should make us laugh and cry at the same time. Pappano's brilliance, however, is offset by brittleness and a certain hardness of edge. This is not to say that he misses some of the score's deeper resonances. Ford's jealousy continuously threatens to darken the predominantly ebullient mood. Nannetta's fairy song exerts a heady, genuine magic. There is laughter aplenty - but the expected lump in the throat and the tears don't come.
Graham Vick's production, with its cleavage-and-codpiece humour, also lacks the requisite magic and profundity, though the cast is, by and large, excellent. Bryn Terfel, swathed in layers of prosthetic fat, is exemplary in the title role - wide-eyed, funny, appealing and grotesque all at the same time. Isokoski, despite the diction, sounds glorious. Anthony Michaels-Moore is the tight-lipped, very dangerous Ford and there is a wonderfully suggestive Mistress Quickly from American contralto Stephanie Blythe. Only the young lovers are less than ideal. Massimo Giordano, tall and gawky, looks great as Fenton, though his voice flutters above the stave. Rebecca Evans is his over-assertive Nannetta, her tone turning shrill under pressure, though she floats pianissimo high notes with a beauty that makes your jaw drop.
· In rep until February 26. Box office: 020-7304 4000.
