The Juilliard Opera Center's (JOC) spring production at the Juilliard School has been Giuseppe Verdi's final opera "Falstaff" (1893), with libretto by composer Arrigo Boito, after William Shakespeare's comedy "The Merry Wives of Windsor," guided by conductor and Juilliard alumna Keri-Lynn Wilson and director Stephen Wadsworth, JOC's Director of Opera Studies, who staged Handel's "Rodelinda" and Gluck's "Iphigéne en Tauride" for the Metropolitan Opera. Why go to a student "Falstaff," a work in both the Met and New York City Opera (NYCO) repertories? The fresh-voiced ensemble proved sufficient reason and provided more than enough reward. The second performance, on April 24, is reviewed here.

Baritone Nicholas Pallesen, in the title role of the louche corpulent knight, in hot pursuit of love and money, delivered the first act's fiercely indignant "L'Onore! Ladri!" and third act's embittered "Mondo ladro-Mondo rubaldo" monologues with grandeur and voice to spare. "Quand'ero paggio," Sir John's reminiscence of his youth, many years and pounds ago, tripped nimbly o'er Pallesen's tongue, and he displayed secure head tone, in the high and falsetto passages, well beyond the means of many veteran performers of the part. Dressed in red, by costumer Sam Fleming, when he came a courting, Pallesen's Falstaff resembled no-one more than Santa Claus, transforming into one of the reindeer, horns on his head, when disguised as the Black Hunter for the final scene masquerade.

Silvery-voiced sopranos Jessica Klein and Jennifer Zetlan-well-remembered for their Mrs. Gibb and Emily Webb in the local premiere of Ned Rorem and J.D. McClatchy's "Our Town"-were mother and daughter Alice Ford and Nanetta. Klein might note that it was the role of Alice, in a Juilliard "Falstaff" in the early 1950s, which set Leontyne Price on the path to stardom. Zetlan, already engaged by the Met and NYCO, wove her Queen of the Fairies aria, "Sul fil d'un soffio etesio," in strands of sheerest gossamer.

Handily dispatching Ford's coloratura figure preceding his Act Two, Scene One duet with Falstaff, Paul LaRosa soon boiled over with jealous rage, polished baritone sound pouring out of him, in his monologue "È sogno? o realtà?," the full-fledged dramatic aria embedded in this comic opera. This anger infused even his part in the Alphonse-Gaston byplay, when he and Falstaff stand upon the order of their going, at the end of the scene. As Nanetta's suitor, Fenton, tenor Paul Appleby, a 2009 winner of the Met's National Council Auditions, sang a dulcet serenade, "Dal labbro il canto estasïato vola," to his love. Both Pauls have distinguished themselves in appearances with the New York Festival of Song.

The idea that a young student should not sing the role of Dame Quickly, which demands a more mature voice, was a good one, but Juilliard alumna Mariana Karpatova, who bills herself as a mezzo-soprano, failed to project the music's lowest contralto reaches over the orchestra. Rebecca Jo Loeb, as Meg Page, lyrically completed the quartet of merry wives. Tenor Nicholas Coppolo and bass Benjamin Bloomfield cut fittingly roguish figures as Falstaff's hangers-on, Bardolph and Pistol, the former still reveling in his own Queen of the Fairies drag, in which he "married" tenor Ta'u Pupu'a's Dr. Caius, long after the caper was revealed.

As shaped by conductor Wilson, the ensemble's final fugue-"Tutto nel mondo è burla" (Everything in the world is a jest)-boasted delicacy, precision and sparkle.

Wadsworth and set designer Derek McLane set some of the indoor scenes outdoors and vice-versa, so that all the action at the Garter Inn took place in its courtyard, while the first meetings of the merry wives and of Ford and his allies occurred not in the garden, but inside Ford's house, also setting for the climax of Act Two. The laundry basket, a key element in Falstaff's first punishment, was already visible in the second scene, as was the spreading oak, painted on a back wall, that serves as site for his midnight comeuppance in Windsor Park. Ford and the other men prepared to confront Falstaff and Alice-thought to be kissing behind a screen, but really the hiding place of Fenton and Nanetta-as if for a battle, with a table, turned on its side, for a barricade and serious weapons, including Dr. Caius' axe. To blend in with Windsor Park, the Fairy Queen's minions wore plants on their heads, as if bearing Birnam Wood to Dunsinane.
At this writing, one hearing, on April 26 at 2 p.m., remains, with the cast considered above, save Kelly Markgraf for Paul LaRosa, and tickets, at $20, are available at the Juilliard Box Office, in the lobby, at 155 West 65th Street at Lincoln Center. Call 212/769-7406 or visit www.juilliard.edu for information.