Vintage 1956, Italian television, black and white, 'the flicks' appropriately named, with an occasional vertical line down the middle, and on the generally vivid soundtrack an occasional 'wow' – but all of this is nothing to the 'wow' of a performance.
Splendidly cast, with not a weak link, conducted with benevolent mastery and pro- duced so as to give the composer what he (and not some imposer of a crack-brained concept) wanted. And above all it's a happy Falstaff (you'd think that would go without saying, but there have been too many frowning Falstaffs making heavy weather amid dutifully rehearsed mirth with no joy in it).
Giuseppe Taddei's smile is at the centre of everything, teeth white as his wig, more emblematic of the man even than his big belly.
He sings gloriously, absolutely in his prime (the Karajan recording by which his Falstaff is probably most generally remembered was made 24 years later).
The Ford is also a fine singer, Scipione Colombo, courtly and vulpine in appearance, convincing in his wounded monologue. The merry wives take their centre not so much from the Alice Ford (Rosanna Carteri) as from the Mistress Quickly and the ripe chest notes of Fedora Barbieri. The lovers, Anna Moffo and Luigi Alva, make a good-looking as well as mellifluous pair. The Caius, Mario Carlin, actually sings (most of them peck), and the Bardolph, Renato Ercolani, is a star, a kind of Dudley Moore with a Cyrano nose. We don't at any point see the conductor, but Serafin's presence is real enough nonetheless.

Vintage 1956, Italian television, black and white… Splendidly cast, with not a weak link, conducted with benevolent mastery and produced so as to give the composer what he… wanted. And above all it's a happy Falstaff… Giuseppe Taddei's smile is at the centre of everything, teeth white as his wig, more emblematic of the man even than his big belly. He sings gloriously, absolutely in his prime... The Ford is also a fine singer, Scipione Colombo, courtly and vulpine in appearance, convincing in his wounded monologue. The merry wives take their centre not so much from the Alice Ford (Rosanna Carteri) as from the Mistress Quickly and the ripe chest notes of Fedora Barbieri.