Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, was his first comic opera in over 50 years. Verdi and his librettist, Boito, kept the composition secret since Verdi was somewhat less comfortable with comic opera, and he wanted to have the option of canceling the production—even after the dress rehearsal. Boito's libretto has its basis in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor with additional material from Henry VI, parts 1 and 2. The premiere at the Teatro alla Scala was a triumph, but, as always, Verdi continued to make adjustments to the score for both the Rome and Paris premieres; these changes were incorporated into the final version of the score.

A mercurial work, Falstaff is an opera that breaks with earlier operatic convention in many ways. While the title character has few moments for vocal display, his two important monologues are marvelous examples of comedy in music. The leading soprano, Alice Ford, has no arias at all. The jealous husband Ford's monologue is a brilliant display piece—but it loses its dramatic punch when removed from the integral and brilliantly paced dramatic whole. Only the two lovers, Nannetta and Fenton, have lyric moments which remind the listener of the younger Verdi; their music is in a simpler style than that for the other characters, perhaps reflecting their relative innocence.

Falstaff sounds musically simple, largely due to the skill with which the composer matched his score to the natural pace of the comedy; yet it is by far Verdi's most complex score—even more so than Othello, which sounds on its surface to be far more daunting. The last act finale is the only formal fugue Verdi ever put into an opera (although he had used the form in his Messa da Requiem). His use of different meters for the women and the men singing at the same time in the second scene of Act One creates a feeling of controlled mass confusion—exactly what the plot requires at that time. The music for the fairies in Act Three is almost Mendelssohnian in character. Early audiences were often puzzled by this complexity but nearly always gave in to the charm and originality of the score; Verdi's by-then-unassailable reputation was no doubt helpful in opening uncertain ears to his innovations.

The orchestral writing is especially gratifying—and difficult; the amount of nuance required from the ensemble is staggering. The orchestral trills which show the wine warming Falstaff after being dunked into the Thames River is one of the finest examples. Another innovative feature of the score is the numerous passages which are sung without any accompaniment; Verdi had done this before, for example in Luisa Miller, but it is a much more prominent feature in Falstaff.

Falstaff will probably never be performed with the regularity enjoyed by Verdi's other works, largely due to the enormous rehearsal demands required to sufficiently prepare an ensemble cast. However, it is universally recognized as one of opera's finest masterpieces, and the composer's crowning achievement.

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