Cases Quote by Anonymous
“If it really was Queen Elizabeth who demanded to see Falstaff in a comedy, then she showed herself a very perceptive critic. But even in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff has not and could not have found his true home because Shakespeare was only a poet. For that he was to wait nearly two hundred years till Verdi wrote his last opera. Falstaff is not the only case of a character whose true home is the world of music; others are Tristan, Isolde and Don Giovanni.”
About This Quote
Source Literary Analysis: Shakespeare and Verdi, 2020
Falstaff and similar characters find their true expression in music, not in the original literary form.
In simple terms: Some characters belong more to music than text.
Key Takeaway
Explore artistic reinterpretations.
Themes
artistic adaptation
cross‑medium expression
character identity
Mood
analytical
inquisitive
Type
literary
musical
When to use this quote
- theatre productions
- opera performances
- film adaptations
- academic study
Key Concepts
intertextuality
musical dramatization
Questions to Reflect On
- How does music change a character's impact?
- Can a character thrive in multiple art forms?
A Different Perspective
Music may not capture all literary nuances.
![“A whole new world of Italian music was springing up, and [Giuseppe] Verdi was seen as old. Boito got Verdi all excited about the possibility of doing another opera, another kind of opera. In fact, Verdi composed his two best operas, Otello and Falstaff, in his eighties.” quote by Maurice Sendak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/290/maurice-sendak-1273_eighty_a-whole-new-world-of-italian-music-was-s_1593395.jpg)
![“Tom [Courtenay] and Albert Finney met Ron Harwood on the dresser, so that's how it started. It's a wonderful documentary. It's called Tosca's Kiss and Mr Hardwood told me about it when I asked him what the genesis was. It was made in 1983 and Verdi, who was rich and successful, toward the end of…” quote by Dustin Hoffman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/9d1/dustin-hoffman-4662_decided_tom-courtenay-and-albert-finney-met-ron_1394864.jpg)
![“When I was young, my mother [folk singer Kate McGarrigle] brought home this recording of Verdi's Requiem and we listened to it from top to bottom. By the end of it, I was a completely different person. It was literally a requiem mass for my former self. I was about 12 or 13. The Requiem just…” quote by Rufus Wainwright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/beb/rufus-wainwright-2260_aids_when-i-was-young-my-mother-folk-singer-k_1158867.jpg)
![“I thought that if I were going into old age I would want to do what [Giuseppe] Verdi did, which is to write extraordinary things, and to really find myself.” quote by Maurice Sendak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/d43/maurice-sendak-1273_age_i-thought-that-if-i-were-going-into-old_866054.jpg)
![“[As in the case of] alcohol prohibition, illegality has driven organized crime, sent countless people to jail, and killed many thousands. Repression does not work.” quote by Sam Branson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/212/sam-branson-36458_alcohol_as-in-the-case-of-alcohol-prohibition-il_8703.jpg)
