Falstaff

Opera by Giuseppe Verdi (libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor and King Henry IV), first produced at La Scala, Milan, Italy, on 9 February 1893. In the story, Falstaff hopes to solve his money problems by seducing Alice Ford and Meg Page; he realizes his folly when he is tipped into the River Thames.

It is also the title of a symphonic study by Edward Elgar, Op. 68 (based on Shakespeare's King Henry IV and references to Falstaff in King Henry V), composed in 1913 and first performed at the Leeds Festival, England, on 2 October 1913.

Other works based on the same sources and character of Falstaff include Gustav Holst's At the Boar's Head, Otto Nicolai's Lustigen Weiber von Windsor, and Ralph Vaughan Williams's Sir John in Love.