For Opera Colorado music director Ari Pelto, Giuseppe Verdi's final opera — written when the composer was 79 years old — is more than a comic epilogue to a long career filled with tragic music dramas. "When I ask performers about their favorite Verdi opera, pretty much everybody responds that it is 'Falstaff.' But most donors, board members and casual opera-goers don't love it as much as the great tragedies like 'La Traviata' or 'Rigoletto.'"

Denver-area opera audiences will reacquaint themselves with the Shakespearean masterpiece as the company stages "Falstaff" to close its 2017-18 season. The four-performance run opens Saturday at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House and continues through Sunday, May 13.