Gordon
Getty
Gordon
Getty

Hostess’s Aria

“Hostess Quickly describes Falstaff’s death, amid harpsichord and clanging mallets, in a beautifully dramatized monologue…”

Joshua Rosenblum

Opera News, 2013

SYNOPSIS

Act 2, Scene 7: “Off to War”
It is just before dawn outside the Boar’s Head Inn. Pistol calls out to Bardolph and Boy, and tells them Falstaff is dead. Hostess describes his death. As dawn breaks, the street fills with men to go to war and women to see them off. Recruiting officers, vendors, tumblers, street entertainers and pipers join the scene. Companies march off as others form. The king and his train pass. Finally Pistol, Bardolph and Boy march away. Hostess and the women remain to bid their men farewell.