VERDI : SIMON BOCCANEGRA

Radio New Zealand Concert network 
Sunday 8th of May 2016 at 6.05 - 9.35
Sunday 20th of February 2011 at 3 - 6.15 pm
Sunday 28th of February 2010 at 3 - 6.45 pm
Sunday 1st of April 2007 at 3 pm

VERDI: Simon Boccanegra,
an opera in a prologue and three acts
based on a play by Antonio Garcia Gutiérrez
A tale of Italian politics and family feuds in which Paolo and Pietro, leaders of the popular (plebeian) party, conspire to gain power over the aristocracy (patricians). They name the popular former pirate Simon Boccanegra as their candidate for the office of Doge, the chief magistrate of the republic. Boccanegra accepts, hoping that his position will enable him to marry Maria, who has been imprisoned by her father, the patrician Fiesco, because she bore Boccanegra a child (branded as illegitimate).
2016
Amelia Grimaldi.......... Lianna Haroutounian
Gabriele Adorno.......... Joseph Calleja
Jacopo Fiesco............... Ferruccio Furlanetto
Simon Boccanegra....... Plácido Domingo
Amelia's maidservant.. Edyta Kulczak
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orch/James Levine
2011
Simon Boccanegra........ Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Amelia.......................... Barbara Frittoli
Fiesco........................... Ferruccio Furlanetto
Gabriele........................ Ramón Vargas
Paolo............................ Nicola Alaimo
Pietro............................ Richard Bernstein
Captain......................... Adam Laurence Herskowitz
Maid............................. Edyta Kulczak
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orch/James Levine
 2010
Tenor Plácido Domingo sings the baritone title role in Verdi’s political music-drama
Simon Boccanegra........ Plácido Domingo
Jacopo Fiesco............... James Morris
Paolo Albiani................. Patrick Carfizzi
Pietro............................ Richard Bernstein
Gabriele Adorno........... Marcello Giordani
Amelia.......................... Adrianne Pieczonka
Maidservant.................. Joyce El-Khoury
Captain......................... Adam Laurence Herskowitz
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orch/James Levine

INTRODUCTION (Wiki)
LIBRETTO (Italian)
REVIEW (Martin Bernheimer, FT)
REVIEW (Anthony Tommasini, NYT)

In 2016 this was broadcast on Mothers' Day; well, it does have Mother Maria in it, but she is out of the picture; it is more about father and daughter (Maria/Amelia) finding each other.

In 2007, Angela Gheorghiou was Amelia Grimaldi, and Thomas Hampson was Simon Boccanegra, her illegitimate father (why should the children always have to be called bastards, why not the parents?); her lover Gabriele was Plàcido Domingo; this time he is the venerable Boccanegra himself. He has also been conducting Stiffelio, but he has been overdoing it, it seems: in Febrary 2010 he had to leave his commitments in Tokyo and return to NY, NY, for an operation, which would put him out of circulation (I am not referring to his blood-flow) for five weeks.

The recording I own has Tito Gobbi in the title role, with Victoria de Los Angeles, and Boris Christoff. I also have a videotape recording (with no pictures!) of the magnificent NZ Opera production some years ago.

Be warned, the plot is complicated and convoluted. Study the material provided by Wikipedia, and don't ask questions if you feel that the tale is contrived; it is not absolutely true history. It is set in Genoa in the 14th century.

Simon Boccanegra has no overture but there is a prologue with a brief prelude to set the mood of dark intrigue, though it just might also describe the sea and remind us that Boccanegra was a pirate, and a plebeian, and thus unlikely to be accepted by the patricians to be the Doge of Genoa. However, in real life, Simon was not a corsair (a sea-raider, a pirate employed by the government, like Francis Drake) but a respected citizen; it was his brother who ruled the waves, but the two have been conflated for the story.

Between the Prologue and Act 1, twenty-five years elapse; and there is also a quarter of a century between the two versions of the opera. The first (with a libretto by Piave, after a Spanish play by Gutierrez, who also provided the story of Trovatore, with babies switched, as here) was a failure, in 1857, when Verdi was 43; the second (with the libretto revised by Boito, who subsequently gave him the texts for Otello and Falstaff) was a success, in 1881, when the composer was 68 (same age as Domingo on opening night).

A happy ending? The old hero dies prematurely of poisoning, but he goes off in a marvellous quartet; the rebellion is over, the lovers are united, the family feuding ends, and peace is established.

2007
New York Metropolitan Opera broadcast
"Radio New Zealand Concert" FM network
http://www.radionz.co.nz/concert/home
This now takes you to "RNZ"
The commercial radio station you listen to when you are not listening to a commercial radio station.
(This is not funny, as the minister of broadcasting had requested the company to be more commercial, to save the taxpayer money, and to supply more funds to the ministers' entertainment expense accounts.)