Falstaff (opera) to think of "Falstaff" as a work that has a certain Englishness. In fact the opera is no more English than "Aida" is Egyptian. Boito and Verdi between them transformed the fat knight into one of the archetypes of "opera buffa"." Verdi himself, however, felt that the Falstaff of the opera is not a conventional Italian "buffo" character, but portrays Shakespeare's fuller, more ambiguous Falstaff of the "Henry IV" plays: "My Falstaff is not merely the hero of "The Merry Wives of Windsor", who is simply a buffoon, and allows himself to be tricked by the women, but also the
Alzira (opera) his possession four months before the production. Verdi had received a synopsis of the opera from Cammarano, the subject of which was not his. But, as Budden notes, Verdi adopted a somewhat passive attitude, impressed as he was at being able to work with this librettist. In a letter of 23 February 1845, Verdi had expressed his optimism that "Voltaire's tragedy will become an excellent melodrama," with the added hope that if the librettist would "put some passion into your libretto" and that he, Verdi, would write music to match. In their early correspondence, it appears that Cammarano had already