The Met Opera's music director James Levine returned to the podium on Saturday afternoon to conduct a matinee performance of Simon Boccanegra, the opera by Giuseppe Verdi based loosely on the life of the former pirate who became the first doge of Genoa in 1339.
Even for Italian opera, this work has an unusually convoluted history. The original version, with a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, premiered in Venice at La Fenice in 1857. It was based on the play by Antonio García Gutiérrez, another of whose dramas had furnished the plot of Verdi's 1853 Il trovatore. Verdi had not been entirely satisfied with Piave's work, however, and while in Paris arranged to have the libretto reworked by the exiled Italian diplomat Giuseppe Montanelli. Piave was kept in ignorance of the situation until Verdi finally presented him with a copy of the revised libretto more of less as a fait accompli. But in spite of Montanelli's alterations the opera opened to mixed reviews and Verdi himself described it as a "fiasco." The biggest problem was the byzantine plot whose intrigues and machinations the audience (as well as critics) had difficulty following. The work stumbled along for several years until it finally fell out of the repertory.
There matters rested until 1880 when Verdi's publisher Ricordi tried to resuscitate the opera and at the same time reconcile Verdi with the composer Arrigo Boito who had years earlier grossly insulted Verdi with his Ode saffica col bicchiere alla mano (in which Boito praised the composer Franco Faccio for "purifying the altar of Italian opera now besmirched like the walls of a brothel"). At the time he had written his ode, Boito had thought he and such composers as Faccio represented the future of Italian music while such old-guard stalwarts as Verdi were nothing more than impediments to realizing this grand vision. In the twenty years that had followed, though, Boito had experienced continued disappointments, most notably the failure of his 1868 Mefistofele, and he was now most anxious to effect a rapprochement with Verdi. The two, who would later collaborate on Otello and Falstaff, worked together through 1880 and made a number of changes to the libretto, the most important of which was the addition of the dramatic council chamber scene to the end of what was now Act I. But even with these changes Simon Boccanegra has never enjoyed the popularity of other Verdi operas and is not so often performed. I personally found myself less moved than I had expected at the conclusion despite a superb performance by all concerned.
Plácido Domingo, who had made his first appearance as a baritone in the role of Boccanegra in 2007 at the Berlin State Opera, reprised the part in 2010 at the Met with James Levine as the conductor. So it was a reunion of sorts when they again worked together on Saturday afternoon. The two, of course, have shared a long history at the Met, most especially in the years when Domingo was rightfully regarded as one of the world's greatest tenors. Seeing him onstage is always a thrilling moment for any opera lover. In a Playbill interview the great singer discussed his transition from tenor to baritone:
"I can only have my own voice, and I have never pretended to have a specifically baritonal type of sound. I think I still sound exactly like Plácido Domingo, even when I am singing in a lower register. Often in opera the baritone is a father or a character somewhat older than the tenor, and since I want to continue to give everything I have as an opera singer for as long as I can, I feel these more mature roles are more appropriate to my age."
In other roles, bass Ferruccio Furlanetto (whom I saw many years ago play Leoporello in Don Giovanni) was excellent as Fiesco/Grimaldi. Two newcomers - Armenian soprano Lianna Haroutounian as Maria/Amelia and Joseph Calleja as Gabriele Adorno - were both more than satisfactory in their parts especially in their duet early in Act I.
The production by Giancarlo del Monaco debuted in 1995 (on which occasion Plácido Domingo played the role of Gabriele) and did very well in providing the necessary historical color in a handsome setting. My only complaint was that the Prologue was so darkly lit - even when the torches were carried in - that I had trouble seeing what was happening onstage.
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