The Verdi Project: Simon Boccanegra

Verdi's most political opera gets it right...eventually.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The digital Doge: Simon Boccanegra as he appears in the video game
Sid Meier's Civilization V: Brave New World. Image © 2010 Firaxis Games.

Not every great opera is a success out of the box. La Traviata is one of those major works that bombed on opening night. But that's nothing compared to the struggles that Simon Boccanegra faced on its long and torturous path into the standard operatic repertory. Verdi's eighteenth opera was a failure at its 1857 premiere. It went through heavy revisions in 1881. Those extensive revisions marked Verdi's first collaboration with librettist and composer Arrigo Boito, with whom he would later create Otello and Falstaff. The title role is one of the pillars of the baritone repertory.

Opera Review: To Thine Own Self Be True

Plaçido Domingo brings Verdi's Simon Boccanegra back to the Met.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Elected: Plaçido Domingo (kneeling) is elevated to Doge in Somon Boccanegra.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2016 The Metropolitan Opera.

Plaçido Domingo is a veritable institution in the world of opera. In his early career, his ringing tenor voice and bold stage presence gave life to all the major Verdi tenor roles from Ernani to Otello. Now 75, the singer has spent most of this decade taking on baritone roles in Verdi operas. This week at the Met, he returned to sing the most demanding of these: the title role in Simon Boccanegra.

Plácido Domingo Hospitalized

Tenor diagnosed with pulmonary embolism.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Plácido Domingo in the title role of Rigoletto in Mantua.Film still © 2011 Emerging Pictures.

According to a story on Norman Lebrecht's classical music blog Slipped Disc, 72-year old tenor-turned-baritone Plácido Domingo is in a Madrid hospital with a pulmonary embolism.

DVD Review: The Low End Theory

Plácido Domingo's Simon Boccanegra, from La Scala.

Plácido Domingo gets elected in Simon Boccanegra from La Scala.
Photo by Marco Brescia © 2010 Archivo Fotografico del Teatro alla Scala.

This DVD, filmed at La Scala in 2010, is the third visual record of tenor Plácido Domingo's attempts to scale the summit of Verdi baritone repertory: the title role in Simon Boccanegra. For the most part, it is a success, thanks the the sensitive, intelligent conducting of Daniel Barenboim.

There is no question that Mr. Domingo commits himself wholly to acting the part of Boccanegra. But it sounds like what it is: a thickened, aged tenor voice pushed down to the bottom of its register, struggling to avoid those heights to which he can still scale. Without the low-end bloom and rich, baritonal sound that is expected from this authoritative character. He produces a noble tone in certain scenes, but lacks the dark mystery in his voice that makes this wily pirate turned politico an attractive protagonist.

The Doge Abides

Plácido Domingo to sing Simon Boccanegra with the Opera Orchestra of New York.

Plácido Domingo in the Metropolitan Opera
production of Simon Boccanegra

The Opera Orchestra of New York has revealed its "secret" production of the 2012 spring season, starring Plácido Domingo. 

And it's...Simon Boccanegra. The opera will be performed in concert at Avery Fisher Hall on March 7. This will mark the OONY's first performance of Boccanegra. OONY music director Alberto Veronesi will conduct.

The title role in Boccanegra has long been considered a pinnacle of the baritone repertoire. Mr. Domingo, who began his 50-year opera career singing in that range, added the role to his repertory in 2009. 

Simon Boccanegra had a complex genesis. Verdi wrote the original version of the opera in 1857. The confusing plot and lack of action did not sit well with the public, and the opera vanished from the stage. In 1881, at the urging of librettist Arrigio Boito, Verdi revamped the opera, restructuring the story and adding the climactic Council Chamber scene to the end of Act I.

Although the OONY has a reputation for bringing little-heard works and unusual versions of operas to the ears of New Yorkers, this will be a performance of the 1881 revision of the opera. It is also Mr. Veronesi's second appearance leading the OONY, following a 2010 double bill of Massenet's La Navarraise and Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana at Carnegie Hall.

The opera gained new life in the repertory in the 20th century, becoming a favorite of great Verdi baritones Tito Gobbi and Piero Cappucilli. It is regularly seen at the Metropolitan Opera, where Mr. Domingo sang the role in the winter of 2009. 

Earlier in his career, Mr. Domingo was frequently heard in the role of Gabriele Adorno, the revolutionary firebrand who is determined to knock the Doge off the throne of Genoa. In this performance, Gabriele will be sung by Massimino Giordano. The role of Amelia, Simon's secret daughter and Gabriele's love interest will be sung by Ana Maria Martinez in her Opera Orchestra of New York debut.

This performance will mark the 71-year old singer's only Verdi appearances of the season. It is also his third performance with the Opera Orchestra of New York, following a 1973 Francesca di Rimini and Massenet's Le Cid in 1976. 

Opera Review: To Rule, He Must Lower Himself

Placído Domingo in Simon Boccanegra at the Met.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Placido Domingo as Boccanegra.
Photo © 2008 The Metropolitan Opera

The season premiere of the Met's revival of Verdi's political drama Simon Boccanegra gave New Yorkers the rare opportunity to see Placido Domingo as the star baritone in a Verdi opera. Now 69 years of age and nearing the end of his singing career, Domingo, (who first auditioned in Mexico as a baritone) lowered his range and took a chance tackling the toughest baritone role in the Italian repertory.