When Baritone Reginald Smith, Jr. sings the title role in Falstaff, the last opera ever composed by Giuseppe Verdi, and only his second comic opera ever, it presents a homecoming of sorts.
"What's really amazing about my doing Falstaff for Houston Grand Opera, is for my Houston Grand Opera audition on the stage the very first thing I ever did at Houston Grand Opera was Falstaff's Act 1 aria," Smith says.
It's an opera that has done well by Smith. Beside the HGO studio audition and he sang Ford's second act aria in the national finals of the 2015 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, which he won. "So I have a very strong connection to this opera," he says laughing.
Donning tights to play Sir Falstaff gives Smith a complex character to portray. "He gets to be angry, sad, charming and arrogant. The depth of the character is so enticing for a performer." Plus, he says, "Usually I play a lot of fathers and bad guys. So it's nice to be funny for once. I don't have to stab anybody in this show. Makes for a light-hearted evening."
Verdi's opera with libretto by Arrigo Bolto, which premiered in 1893 at La Scala, owes a lot to Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV, parts 1 and 2. Falstaff is a jovial and not entirely honest fellow who has fallen on hard times with mounting debt. He decides to resolve his situation by romancing two married women at the same time to gain access to their husbands' wealth.
"He decides he's going to write identical letters and send them to two women who happen to be very good friends, trying to seduce both of them. Of course they find out that it's the same letter," says Smith.
Predictably, he is not successful. Once Falstaff's ruse is discovered, he becomes the foil for pranks from the women and and threats of deadly harm from the men.
Smith combines his opera work with concerts and recital work. "I love teaching," says the man who went to school for music education for kindergarten through 12th grade. "My goal was always to be a high school choir teacher.
"So whenever I get to do master classes in in schools is a highlight for me," he says. Following Falstaff Smith will be in Waco for Lone Star Song Festival, doing a recital of all African American composers. "I'm singing in Italian, I'm singing in German, I'm singing in Mandarin, I'm singing in French, I'm singing in English."
"One of the joys of Falstaff is in the midst of our crazy world and turning on the news and seeing a lot of depressing things, you have a show that's fun, that's friendly, that's funny and that's just generally warm-hearted. On top of that the story line is so funny and compelling in a way that you don't have to be a big opera buff to understand what's going on. "
The work of the librettist and composer is tightly woven together he says, with sounds from the orchestra backing up the lively text as when when Falstaff sings about money and gold tis accompanied by what sounds like the clanging of coins from the orchestra.
Verdi's first comic opera Un giorno di regno was not a success. "It was a flop. just absolutely not great," Smith says. But late in life, Verdi wanted to try again. Although the three-act Falstaff was not originally very well received, it has become a staple of opera communities around the world.
"The score is one of Verdi's true masterpieces," says Smith. "It is probably my mother's favorite role that I have done."
He hurries to explain that while he spends a lot of time on stage, Falstaff is a true ensemble piece. Soprano Nicole Heaston is Alice Ford, baritone Blake Denson is Ford, soprano Andrea Carroll is Nannetta, tenor Jack Swanson is Fenton and mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cao is Mistress Quickly. Paula Suozzi directs, with Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers as conductor.
The biggest challenge for him in singing this, he says, is stamina. There's six scenes, three acts. Falstaff is in all but one.
The other thing that's difficult about Falstaff, he says, is "The Box." In Act 2 Scene 2 Falstaff has gone to woo Alice, at the home of Ford and Alice. Ford is on his way home. The women have to figure out how to hide Falstaff so that Ford doesn't kill him.
"So they bring out a big laundry basket and Falstaff has to jump in the laundry basket and sing from the laundry basket. And I'm a big man. And I have to pretzel myself up into a basket for the whole scene and sing from there. And they dump me in the river afterwards."
Musically it's not the most difficult part, Smith says, but when Falstaff sings that he's drowning in sweat while in the box, Smith says that's a little too true to life.
"At that moment I'm not acting. "
Performances are scheduled for October 27 through November 10 at 7:30 p.m. Friday October 27 and November 10; 2 p.m. Sunday, October 29; 7:30 p.m. Saturday November 4; and Wednesday November 8 , at the Wortham Center, 501 Texas. For more information, call 713-228-6737 or visit houstongrandopera.org. $25-$280.
