Sir John in Love is an opera in four acts by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.
The libretto, by the composer himself, is based on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor and supplemented with texts by Philip Sidney, Thomas Middleton, Ben Jonson, and Beaumont and Fletcher.
[4][5] In August 2010, the Australian Shakespeare Festival, an initiative of the University of Tasmania, gave a professional concert presentation of the opera conducted by Myer Fredman.
[8] Outside Page's house, Justice Shallow and Parson Evans are angry at Sir John Falstaff and his men for getting Abraham Slender drunk and stealing his wallet.
Simple tries to deliver the letter from Slender, but Caius intercepts it, and after reading it, thinks that Evans also has designs on Anne Page.
The gold directs Mistress Quickly to place Fenton at the top of the list of suitors for Anne Page.
Falstaff writes identical love letters to Mistresses Ford and Page, but his henchmen Nym and Pistol refuse to be part of this scheme.
They engage Mistress Quickly to deliver a message to Falstaff that he should go to Alice Ford's house between ten and eleven that night.
Scene 2: The parlour of the Garter Inn Bardolph announces to Falstaff the arrival of a visitor, Master "Brook", who is Ford in disguise.
Scene 1: A footpath near Windsor Fenton asks for the Inn Host's assistance to win Anne Page.
Anne arrives, initially expressing some doubts because of Fenton's past association with Falstaff, but he convinces her of his true love.
Scene 2: A field near Windsor Caius enters, with plans to challenge Evans to a duel over Anne Page.
Caius, along with Ford, Shallow, Slender and the Inn Host, meet Evans by the river bank for the duel.
However, the duel between Caius and Evans gradually peters out, until the Host asks them for mutual forgiveness to each other and reconciliation at the Inn over a pint.
Mistress Ford directs her servants to remove the laundry basket, which they do, under great strain because of Falstaff's weight.
Anne Page, dressed in blue, appears with a group of fairies and leads a dance around Herne's Oak.