Falstaff (opera) knight, Sir John Falstaff, to seduce two married women to gain access to their husbands' wealth. Verdi was concerned about working on a new opera at his advanced age, but he yearned to write a comic work and was pleased with Boito's draft libretto. It took the collaborators three years from mid-1889 to complete. Although the prospect of a new opera from Verdi aroused immense interest in Italy and around the world, "Falstaff" did not prove to be as popular as earlier works in the composer's canon. After the initial performances in Italy, other European countries and the US, the
Shakespearean problem play between laws establishing order and the natural tendencies of humans. The problem-plays follow a formula: the established laws of society are challenged, chaos reigns over society, chaos is vanquished by the institution of a new order. From the perspective of scholar Ernest Schanzer, a Shakespearean problem-play is first defined independently of the idea of a Shakespearean play and only by what the phrase "problem play" itself necessitates. Schanzer chooses to consider only ethical dilemmas in the definition of "problem," excluding psychological, political, social, and metaphysical problems that may develop. He concludes that problem plays are classified by a pivotal ethical