Sir John Falstaff is a man who wants it all: money, power, women, pleasure – and control. But in Giuseppe Verdi's opera, it is the women who call the shots. Alice Ford, Meg Page and Mrs Quickly confront Falstaff's audacity with wit and ingenuity, challenging an order that tries to force them into rigid roles and monotonous dreariness.

In a world dominated by greed, jealousy and social constraints, all the characters find themselves grappling with an invisible web of expectations and entrenched role models. And then there is Falstaff – an eternal outsider who may lose the game, but never his sense of humour.

With subtle irony and brilliant musical lightness, Verdi's last opera portrays a society in upheaval: a tightrope walk between comedy and tragedy, chaos and order. And in the end, the question remains: who is the fool – the one who makes the rules or the one who breaks them?