SAN JOSE, CA—-Doubts abounded, with nay-sayers smirking that not even Verdi could set a Shakespearean comedy into a good opera.

Those doubting Thomases were silenced when nearing the then-doddering age of 80, Verdi brought off that sparkling operatic masterpiece, “Falstaff,” which is getting its due and more from a highly animated production at Opera San José.

Major companies, take note: This smaller troupe with its actor-singers, only in its 39^th season, can run circles around many grand-opera troupes having major funding and backing.

The production that opened Feb. 11 struck the delicate balance, with ample buffoonish humor, but without turning the obese aged knight into a buffoon. However much his earthy desires were thwarted, Falstaff shook off his dunking in the Thames and maintained a measure of self-worth. He walked that tightrope, laughing off the pranks he underwent with the deft final fugue, “All the World Is Mirth.” Baritone Darren Lekeith Drone walks that precarious tightrope, wine-belly and all, and sings with sensual ease, however preposterous.

Falstaff sings a paean to wine—how appropriate to us Californians! He is surrounded by similar barflies. And the opera’s main setting is inside a giant wine barrel, even bigger than the famous Falstaff belly that surpasses even the one-time mighty frame of Luciano Pavarotti. The production under Stage Director José Maria Condemi then sets in motion a seamless comedy with a large cast of 11 singers and a cut-up scamp, all with movie-like timing and deft characterizations.

The cherries at the top are not Falstaff’s meaty arias (like the “Honor” Monologue) but rather the many vocal ensembles, mostly quartets, meticulously assembled under conductor Joseph Marcheso. They fly along lickety-split in Italian with perfect timing, forcing performers’ agility at both voice and movement. It’s widely termed the most dazzling ensemble-writing since Mozart.

Hatching plots and pranks is the quartet of Elizabethan ladies capped by the habile lyric soprano Chanáe Curtis playing Alice, supported by mezzo Shanley Horvitz (Meg), contralto Megan Esther Grey (Dame Quickly) and soprano Natalia Santaliz (the highly eligible Nannetta). The one thoroughly British scene, with nymphs in a bewitched forest, is capped by Santaliz’s fetching aria, before all the goblins materialize.

The work pushes all the buttons, offering the Italian libretto, glints of Shakespeare’s England, and supertitle translations in both English and Spanish.

Among the men, the robust baritone Eugene Brancoveanu plays the tricky role of Ford as if anticipating General Motors soon to appear in pursuit. Unforgettable is the interplay of him and Falstaff, as the knight reaches repeatedly toward the money-sack offered, in time to the music, till he succumbs and grabs it.

This troupe has moved forward on many fronts to produce a great show with its elusive challenge now lighting up San Jose; it’s only a matter of time till the struggling pit orchestra follows suit. OSJ continues its long tradition of featuring a rotating complement of resident artists, no less than five of them appearing in “Falstaff.”

OSJ NOTES—A sub-rosa compliment was paid to the company when its general director Khori Dastoor was tapped by the mighty Houston Grand Opera to take over leadership. The OSJ successor starting in 2022 has been Shawna Lucey…. The three-act opera ran just two-and-a-half hours with the elimination of the other intermission. Reducing the endless intermissions to tighten up the action has been a crusade in some opera circles, voiced loudly and often by San Francisco opera sage and philanthropist Gordon Getty.…. Feb. 9 had marked exactly 130 years since the world premiere of the opera.

VERDI’S OPERA ‘FALSTAFF,’ in Italian, through Feb. 26. For info: (408) 437-4450, or online: operasj.org. California Theatre, 345 1^st St., San Jose.

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