One of the privileges of living near Manchester is the Royal Northern College of Music opera, which is never seen elsewhere (although perhaps it should be). There are plenty of singers here who are ready to step onto the professional stage, operas are routinely sung in their original language with surtitles, and in Stefan Janski's hands the productions are always imaginative.
Verdi's last opera is in many ways his hardest to present. It bristles with action and jokes, it has an enormous number of characters, and it has almost cinematographic changes of mood, with glorious moments of stillness amid the bustle. Janski's approach is to avoid any funny business: he keeps the stage relatively clear and he blocks the characters in a fairly traditional manner. In short, he concentrates on telling the story and clarifying the characters. Judith Croft's designs are splendid but economical, retaining the same basic set except for the last scene. The many upper-storey windows with faces poking out give the sense of everything happening in a world where gossip and intrigue prevail. Nick Richings provides lighting of an unusual sensitivity. It is rare to see a production of Falstaff in which all the details and gags are so easy to understand, contributing deftly to the work's impact.
Stephen Barlow conducts with considerable flair. The student orchestra is over-enthusiastic at the start, rather drowning the young voices with Verdi's heavy scoring. But that soon sorts itself out, and the bright colours and the often cruelly exposed virtuoso orchestration meld perfectly with the stage. Darren Jeffery seems ideally suited to the enormous title-role: never overacting, never tiring, he is excellent, and produces in the last act some of the loveliest sounds of the evening. An extremely strong supporting cast includes Rebecca von Lipinski's authoritative Alice, Anne-Marie Gibbons, solid in the difficult role of Quickly, a neatly acted Ford from Roland Davitt, and delightful young lovers from Claire Ormshaw and Nicholas Sharratt. In a beautifully conceived innovation members of the RNCM Junior Strings Project sang as the fairies in the last scene.
• In rep until March 31. Box office: 0161-907 5278.
