About the work
Falstaff, ossia Le tre burle is a dramma giocoso in two acts by Antonio Salieri to a libretto by Carlo Prospero Defranceschi, based on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. It premiered at the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna on 3 January 1799; Salieri and Defranceschi were the first to choose this Shakespearean subject for an opera.
Plot
The indebted, ageing knight John Falstaff tries to gain access to the fortunes of two married women, Mistress Ford and Mistress Slender, by courting them, sending both the same love letter. When the women discover the ruse, they and their husbands plot a revenge that exposes Falstaff through three tricks.
Cultural significance
Defranceschi condensed Shakespeare's five-act play into two acts and invented new characters, Mistress Slender and her maid Betty. Contemporary reports describe the premiere as a great success with several numbers encored, and the opera reached 26 performances by 1802 — roughly ninety years before Verdi's opera of the same name.