The Merry Wives of Windsor - Adaptations and Cultural References

Adaptations and Cultural References

• The play was revised and adapted by John Dennis in 1702 as The Comical Gallant.

• The composer Antonio Salieri wrote the opera buffa Falstaff (1799), with a libretto by Carlo Prospero Defranceschi, which also adapts the main story line of The Merry Wives of Windsor for the operatic stage.
• The German composer Carl Otto Nicolai wrote an opera based on the comedy in 1849, Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor.
• Giuseppe Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, with a libretto by Arrigo Boito, is based on the play, although, as with most operas adapted from the theatre, there are significant differences as to characters and plot.
• The English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote Sir John in Love, an opera based on this play in the years 1924–28.

• The play was adapted to Kiswahili by Joshua Ogutu and performed at the Globe Theatre in London as part of the 2012 Globe to Globe festival.

• For the 2012 Oregon Shakespeare Festival season, Alison Carey adapted the play into a political satire called The Very Merry Wives of Windsor, Iowa.

• For the 2012 Bard on the Beach, Vancouver BC season, Director Johnna Wright set the play in 1968 Windsor, Ontario.