Teatro Real, Madrid, Premiere October 1, 2002

Impressions and contents Part 1  -  Part 2  -  Part 3

With a from all sides applauded, splendid performance of Verdi's Simone Boccanegra the Teatro Real in Madrid (ESP) opened on October 1 its fifth season since its reopening in 1997. Stage director Giancarlo del Monaco and his stage and costume designer Michael Scott have created together with the light designer Wolfgang Zoubek a completely rounded work with an intensive atmosphere and magnificent design. The five protagonists of the first night - Alexandru Agache (Simone Boccanegra), Elisabete Matos (Amelia Grimaldi), Giacomo Prestia (Jacopo Fiesco), Marco Berti (Gabriele Adorno) and Anooshah Golesorkhi (Paolo Albani) - have been in as good form as the orchestra under the baton of Gabriele Ferro.

In detail  

About the production

Also in the year after the Verdi Year 2001, the 100th anniversary of the death of the Italian composer, Verdi tops the programs of the opera houses. Still before the Simone Boccanegra premiere at the Vienna State Opera on October 14, 2002, which is a co- production with the Salzburg Festival, celebrated Verdi's drama about a lost- and- found daughter its first night in a new production of the Teatro Real at Madrid (ESP) on October 1, 2002. The opera house at Madrid started with Verdi's opera into its fifth season since its reopening  with de Fallas La vida breve and the world's premiere of Abril's Divinas Palabras in 1997.

For the Madrid production of Simone Boccanegra, for whose libretto Francesco Maria Piave took the play Simone Boccanegra (1843) written by the Spanish  novelist Antonio Garcia Gutíerrez as base, nobody less than Giancarlo del Monaco shows responsible. He put on stage a visually opulent piece, what was considered by some critics for too traditionally, but found the unanimous agreement of the Madrid audience. A first night without any booing is quite seldom for the Madrid opera house. Giancarlo del Monaco has chosen as basic for all three acts an uniform stage design, which remembers at columns of red marble and should reflect the giant ambitious of all dictatorships. The aspect that Simone Boccanegra, though a loving father and sensitive human being, is nevertheless finally a dictator plays in the eyes of del Monaco in this production an important part. But, different to his New York production of the nineties the sea does not only exist in the head of the protagonist – this time it is always visually present. Besides during the prologue it has a movie in the back with a moving sea and a sky with passing-by clouds. According to the musical atmosphere the sea is more stormy or calmer. The basic color of the production is red. This reflects in the red-marbled walls, in the splendid costumes, who fit to the time of the libretto in the 14th century, and in the colors of the sea and the heaven.  Altogether a very evocative stage design.

About the music

When Simone Boccanegra was performed first in the Teatro La Fenice at Venice in 1857, it was not destined to succeed. In spite of several reworkings through the composer also in later appearances it did not change to the better. The success should come not earlier as with the in 1880 done reworking by Arrigo Boito, who tried to eliminate some of the weak points of the libretto. The first performance of this version at the Scala di Milan in 1880 was a triumphal success. Nevertheless, it should take till the thirties of the 20th century, till victory came also outside Italy like in Berlin or at the MET in New York.

In the musical work of Verdi is Simone Boccanegra an important landmark on his way from the opera with different numbers to the psychologizing music drama. Also the musical director of the Madrid production Gabriele Ferro agrees to this opinion, "It is the first opera, in which Verdi uses the recitatives in another way, in a more combining manner. The instrumentation and the colors in the orchestra give more a symphonic idea than in his works before, though Verdi stays in the tradition of the Italian opera." And the son of the Italian composer Pietro Ferro continues, "It is the first time that Verdi creates a picture of the sea by the orchestra. At the beginning of the first act the listeners get the feeling that they can hear the sea – something like this it never had before in the works of Verdi. Also the whole structure of this opera is different to the proceeding ones. For example, Simone Boccanegra does not have a real aria."

About the casts

Since it has during a series of one opera almost each night a performance at the Teatro Real, it had two casts for Simone Boccanegra. The cast of the first night saw Alexandru Agache in the title role of Simone Boccanegra. The Romanian baritone, who has sung this role already at the Covent Garden in London, at the MET in New York and in the Bastille at Paris, embodied this role of the cosar, who becomes the Doge of Genoa, with great personality and dignity and most times with a good vocal presence, which got some times lost in the recitatives. In the shaping of the recitatives as well as in the piani Carlo Guelfi was very convincing as Simone Boccanegra in the performance of (October 2, but he was missing the powerfulness and the richness in the lower registers of the voice. With the final duet of Fiesco (bass) and Simone (baritone), when the due to Paolo's poison dying Simone reveals to his enemy Fiesco that Amelia is his grand-daughter, and finally the two men are reconciled, Verdi has written one of his most beautiful bass-baritone-duets. In the role of Fiesco stands with great bass power and vocal expressiveness the Italian bass Giacomo Prestia on the stage of the first night.  Andrea Papi of the second night does not have to hide behind him. The role of Amelia is casted very differently with Elisabete Matos and Carmela Remigio. In the first night Elisabete Matos, who had been standing in Divinas Palabras next to Plácido Domingo already on the stage of the Teatro Real, did not totally mach her usual vocal brilliance. In the heights the voice of the soprano, who has become meanwhile an acclaimed Wagner interpret, became a bit sharp and got some tremolo. With more sensibility, vocal smoothness and secure heights sung Carmela Remigio the part of Amelia at the following evening. In the premiere Marco Berti gave the Gabriele Adorno with a powerrful shining tenor, glowing heights and self-confident stage personality. His role debut celebrated Nicola Rossi Giordano as Adorno on October 2. He designed the role compared to Marco Berti with more sensibility and more emphasis on the piani, but had with his nicely colored tenor still sometimes problems in the transitions from the medium into the higher ranges. The Italian singer, who is in his mid-thirties, has come to sing operas only two years ago and stands still at the beginning of a certainly with attention to follow career, which has allowed him to sing already roles like Radmès (Aida), Pollione (Norma) and Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly). Vocally and visually he meets the requirements for a successful career and it does not have too many tenors in his repertory of international level. A good figure vocally as on the acting part makes as well Anooshah Golesorkhi as Paolo Albani, who is singing in all performances. The US American baritone, who has been singing among other roles already Nabucco at the Vienna State Opera and the MET, counts also the role of Simone Boccanegra to his repertory. His Paolo makes curious to hear more from him. The choir of the Madrid Symphonic Orchestra offers a nicely colored, precise sound. The orchestra under the baton of Gabriele Ferro plays in a singer-friendly manner, has its absolute highlight in painting the sounds of the sea in the beginning of the first act producing a wonderful symphonic sound and it knows to deepen the melancholic-gloomy general atmosphere.

Birgit Popp

Impressions and contents Part 1  -  Part 2  -  Part 3

Bericht

SIMONe BOCCANEGRA

Opera in one prologue and three acts

Musik/Music: Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901)

Libretto: Francesco Maria Piave und/and Arrigo Boito

Vorstellungen:  1., 2., 3., 5., 7., 8., 10., 12., 13., 15

More information: www.teatro-real.com