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03/23/2025
Giuseppe Verdi: Simon Boccanegra (Original 1857 Version)
Germán Enrique Alcántara (Simon Boccanegra), Eri Nakamura (Amelia), William Thomas (Jacopo Fiesco), Iván Ayón‑Rivas (Gabriele Adorno), Sergio Vitale (Paolo Albiani), David Shipley (Pietro), Beth Moxon (Amelia’s maid), Royal Northern College of Music Chorus, Kevin Thraves (chorus master), The Hallé, Sir Mark Elder (conductor)
Recording: Hallé St Peter’s, Ancoats, Manchester, England (April 2024) – 133’
Opera Rara ORC65 2CDs – Book in English
 
After Simon Boccanegra premiered at Venice’s Teatro La Fenice in 1857, a glum Verdi wrote “it was a fiasco almost as big as that of La Traviata”, and the opera never got off the ground, mocked not least for its convoluted libretto. We tend to think of an opera season as consisting of a selection from an existing classic repertoire, with perhaps a few contemporary pieces: but in Verdi’s day it was more about the thrill of the new, and once Simon Boccanegra was deemed unsuccessful, it had missed its opportunity and, more or less, disappeared. So when the composer decided to revise the opera in 1881, it wasn’t so much an artistic endeavour to polish something to perfection, but just an attempt to revive the piece and get it back onto the stage. Verdi never bothered overmuch about stylistic continuity and seemed quite happy with what Opera Rara’s musicologist Roger Parker generously calls “strange anachronistic dissonances”. In his reworking of Simon Boccanegra, Verdi was already looking forward musically to his two final operas, Otello and Falstaff, and although we now classify it as a late period masterpiece, it is, in fact, quite jarring as it swings backwards and forwards between musical styles.
The original 1857 version has been revived a few times over the last few decades, but it remains a curiosity. Is it any good? Opera Rara, as ever, gives the underdog a chance and mounted a concert performance last year, and, here, provides a studio recording (in excellent sound) of Parker’s critical edition for Ricordi. Mark Elder conducts with his customary superb attention to detail. He is not one to rush a phrase, but at the same time manages to keep musical tension. The Hallé plays magnificently and the two choruses are also excellent. If the performance sometimes remains a touch earthbound it is, perhaps, because it is strange for ears accustomed to the 1881 sophistications to accommodate the more elemental original tinta. The basics remain much the same, though Verdi’s last librettist Boito fiddled with the existing text, but the music continuously takes different paths which are aurally surprising. Perhaps the most obvious change is the lack of the magnificent Council Chamber Scene at end Act I, which originally had a more traditional structure (though not helped by the jaunty opening chorus sounding like “The Sun Has Got His Hat On”).
The cast is generally excellent. Germán Enrique Alcántara was a stand‑in for the title role and proves most impressive. His baritone is youthful and rich, the phrasing long and with a great range of colours. Act II shows him at his very best, when Boccanegra falls into a reverie from which he bursts with thrilling tone before leading the trio that ends the act. It is a most impressive assumption. Alcántara is up against a formidable Fiesco in William Thomas, whose bass also has the bloom of youth and a suave resonance reminiscent of Nicolai Ghiaurov (and I know no higher praise). Amelia was also a stand‑in, Eri Nakamura, who bravely tackles a role that really isn’t for her. She possesses the bright flexibility required in Amelia’s cabaletta (cut in 1881), and can sail well over an ensemble. But, once exposed, the tone is often shallow and inflated in her middle voice and sometimes she is tonally wayward. Hats off for saving the show, but she is like a Luisa Miller who has the flexibility for Act I of that opera, but she is defeated by the remainder. Her tenorial love interest here is Iván Ayón‑Rivas, with a liquid tone and some exciting spinto thrust, though I suspect Gabriele Adorno is as far as he should venture at the moment. Sergio Vitale makes as much as possible of Paolo as the role was originally intended: Boito later expanded it to great effect.
Overall, it is a very good recording and a glimpse into an operatic byway. Completists will relish it, but the more general listener should probably stick with the 1881 revision: Abbado’s classic 1977 recording is my recommendation.
Francis Muzzu
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