Six stars for Falstaff National Opera

After partially or even completely unsuccessful productions of Falstaff, De Nationale Opera now does everything right. Twenty years after the previous attempt in the Holland Festival, Verdi's last opera gets a dream performance that could only just become audience favourite of the entire festival.

And that for a dramatic comedy, a genre that is notoriously difficult to stage. All too often, the opera about the old, fat knight Sir John Falstaff, for whom life revolves around eating, drinking...