If there was ever a Verdi opera designed to make you say, “That’s entertainment!” it’s his final masterpiece, “Falstaff.”

You can’t ask for better raw material. The title character from Shakespeare is probably the greatest comic figure in world literature: blowhard, braggart, coward, glutton, lecher, liar, lush — and irresistibly attractive.

Opera Roanoke’s production of “Falstaff” was the funniest comic opera I have seen in nearly a quarter-century from this company. In fact, Sunday afternoon’s show at Shaftman Performance Hall at Jefferson Center was one of the most hilarious stage works I’ve seen in Roanoke, period, including the musical stage and touring companies.

It earned an immediate standing ovation from the nearly full house, which roared and screamed its approval of the great rogue and his fellow characters.

Peter Castaldi was over the top as Falstaff, and ditto Scott Williamson and Jeffrey Tucker as his boozy, dissolute servants, Bardolph and Pistol.

Once the opening curtain raised on the whalelike aging knight, beached at the Garter Inn, the laugh track was nearly constant. The pratfalls, the funny facial expressions, the slick stage business and the succinct, funny supertitles were priceless.

Oh, it’s an opera — did I mention the voices? Castaldi’s powerful baritone is familiar to Roanoke audiences because of his recent roles as Germont and Figaro.
He managed to infuse every phrase with a knowing leer.

At least as good as Castaldi were Terese Cullen as Alice Ford, Emily Langford Johnson as Meg Page, Jennifer Roderer as Mistress Quickly and Deborah Selig as Nannetta Ford.

If you weren’t there, you missed one of the best shows in decades in Roanoke, and a slam-bang start to this company’s 2008-09 season.