Music: Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto: Francesco Maria Piave, Arrigo Boito
Conductor: Antony Hermus
Director: P J Harris
Why, one asks oneself, are Opera North’s annual semi-staged productions always such triumphant occasions, such vivid dramatic and musical realisations of the opera in question? Obviously the general excellence of the company is a factor; it would be disingenuous to pretend that these are their only productions to reach this standard. Equally the operas are carefully chosen.
Nevertheless there must be some extra reasons for such consistently outstanding work. The direct involvement with characters and on-stage orchestra is one, in this case using the entire hall for chorus entries (in the dress circle or most effectively surging down the side aisles in the riot against the Doge). Perhaps the limited space forces a remarkable engagement with inter-personal relationships, free of directorial concepts. And there is the little matter of choosing superb singers!
Simon Boccanegrauniquely bears the names of Verdi’s two premier librettists. Written in a confused hurry caused by overwork in 1857 to a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, it failed, but in 1881, with a revised libretto by Arrigo Boito, it finally achieved success. The story is a historically wayward account of the reign of Boccanegra, the first Doge of Genoa. Almost incomprehensible on paper, it emerges with dramatic force on stage.
A Prologue 25 years before the main action introduces us to the feud between the patrician Jacopo Fiesco and the newly elected Doge, the plebian corsair Boccanegra whose love affair with Fiesco’s daughter Maria has produced a child. Maria dies; the child disappears. When action resumes, Fiesco is in exile and has taken in the daughter Amelia without knowing her true identity. She is in love with Gabriele Adorno, an enemy of Boccanegra who soon has to face up to the machinations of Paolo Albiani, once his close associate. In all of this Boccanegra emerges as the advocate of peace.
P J Harris’ direction makes skilful use of a tripartite division of the forestage, with limited furniture (most notably, Maria Fiesco’s deathbed) and an imaginative placing of the chorus throughout the hall: one imagines that this be reconfigured to suit the various halls on tour.
Musically the opera is full of the duets at which Verdi excelled – the violent opposition between Boccanegra and Fiesco in the Prologue or the gradual realisation of their relationship by Boccanegra and Amelia, for instance – but the Council Scene, added by Boito, is the riveting centre-piece, from order to chaos back to uncertain order, with characters’ passions (and sometimes secrets) revealed in music of intense drama.
Roland Wood encompasses everything from authority to agony in a beautifully judged performance as Boccanegra, with Sara Cortolezzis as Amelia responsible for the few moments of sweetness, as well as some stirringly assertive singing.
Vazgen Gazaryan reveals Fiesco’s character, his hatred for Boccanegra and the intensity of his love for his daughter and grand-daughter, in a black bass with low notes of overwhelming power and purity. The other bass, Mandla Mndebele (Albiani), slightly lighter, brings passion to bear on all his situations, from manipulating Boccanegra’s rise to plotting his death. Even more passionate is Andres Presno’s fiercely Italianate Gabriele. In the face of a wonderfully expressive international cast, chorus member Richard Mosley-Evans acquits himself well as Paolo’s sidekick Pietro.
Antony Hermus links the whole thing together splendidly, with vocal entrances coming from all points of the compass, and once again the chorus and orchestra respond superbly to complete what is certain to be one of the more memorable events of Bradford’s year as City of Culture.
Touring nationwide
The Reviews Hub Score
Simply outstanding
