See the COC perform opera whiz Robert Carsen’s fancy Falstaff

Only in a Robert Carsen opera are the backgrounds as exciting as the music—the Toronto-born director is known for creating majestic Metropolitan Opera sets that rival Valhalla itself. This fall, his ornate production of Verdi’s Falstaff, starring Canadian baritone Gerald Finley in the title role, arrives at the Canadian Opera Company after stints at La Scala, the Met and Covent Garden. Carsen updates the action from the first Elizabethan era to the second: 1960, a time of upward mobility and materialistic splendour. The sets are sumptuously adorned with period-appropriate tchotchkes, textiles and furniture—there’s an upscale restaurant, a woodsy hunt club, a bedroom modelled after a Mae West movie and, our favourite, a bright, busy kitchen (pictured above), for which the props team reproduced authentic 1960s British food labels.

Oct. 3 to Nov. 1. $49—$349. Four Seasons Centre, 145 Queen St. W., 416-363-8231, coc.ca