Falstaff is an Italian opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, on a libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on William Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor". It was first performed in Milan, on February 9, 1893. Verdi's last opera and perhaps greatest masterpiece, composed when he was 80, and only his second comedy since his earlier attempt "Un giorno di regno" in 1840.