     This is the last opera composed by Verdi and represents his mature ensemble and orchestral writing style.  The final scene of the last Act finds Falstaff, an overweight comic figure, trying to court two ladies who are well aware of his intentions and quite uninterested.  As is typical of opera buffa, the plot is filled with individuals all with  schemes at work.  The schemes of Falstaff and those of the ladies collide with schemes of yet another individual, Ford.  In this scene all of the schemes intersect and are exposed.  The plot is complicated by the use of masks, confusing everyone except the audience.  As usual, true love, in this case that of young Fenton and Anne, wins over all the other schemes.  While in disguise (disguises which had been switched), they are married in front of everyone while Falstaff, Ford, and Dr. Caius, all of whom had other plans, watch unknowingly.   The successful schemes of the two ladies and the young couple put everyone else in their rightful place.  The scene ends with everyone reconciled to the marriage.
	The music is a brilliant interplay of several solo voices expressing diametrically opposed emotions ranging from joy to surprise and anger. There are short orchestral statements throughout which help articulate the various moods of the soloists.  There is also a chorus of voices which appears at the very end and takes on the role of a quasi narrator expounding on the situation.  This chorus is cleverly structured as a fugue.  See if you can hear the staggered entrances.  Finally, be aware of the quick movement from texture to texture.  At times, there are several voices interacting at once; at other times there are short, melodic ideas.  Interspersed between all of these textures are moments that sound like recitative settings.  This contrast of textural colors is evidence of Verdi's compositional control.

The text at 2:33 min
     Hurrah!
	The whole world is but a joke,
	And man is born a clown.
	Within his addled head
	His brains are in a churn.
	We all are fools! And every man
	Laughs at the others' folly.
	But he laughs best who sees to it
	That the last laugh falls to him."

