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Opera superstar Bryn Terfel performs at the Aspen Music Festival for the first time in the role of Falstaff

Renowned bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, left, and Chris Mohr of Aspen Public Radio stand outside the radio station on the lawn of the Red Brick Arts Center this month. Terfel performed in Verdi's "Falstaff" on Friday at the Benedict Music Tent.
Chris Mohr
/
Aspen Public Radio
Renowned bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, left, and Chris Mohr of Aspen Public Radio stand outside the radio station on the lawn of the Red Brick Arts Center this month. Terfel performed in Verdi's "Falstaff" on Friday at the Benedict Music Tent.

Shakespeare invented the character of Falstaff, but there’s no Shakespeare play of that name.

Instead, the famously corpulent Falstaff appears in two separate plays, most prominently in "The Merry Wives of Windsor."

That is where Verdi found most of the plot for his opera "Falstaff."

Unquestionably, the leading operatic Falstaff of recent decades is Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel.

Terfel performed in the title role Friday at the Benedict Music Tent as part of the Aspen Music Festival.

"It’s wonderful to be in Aspen for the first time," Terfel said.

Classical music reporter Chris Mohr has loved classical music since he was twelve. “And I owe it all to radio,” Chris explains. “I grew up in a farm town east of Cleveland. One day I turned on the local classical radio station. They were playing Vivaldi, and it was like the gates of heaven opened up to me!" Chris is also a composer, and is working on a 53-note-to-the-octave oratorio, "Melodies of the Shoreless Sea." This is his ninth summer working for Aspen Public Radio.