The opening night of Simon Boccanegra ended in triumph. The notable musical performance of Verdi’s masterpiece is paired with an intense moment of theater. Tasked with embodying the title role of Verdi’s opera, French baritone Ludovic Tézier swept the accolades. While Ludovic Tézier’s performance is a necessary and sufficient reason to visit the Carlo Felice of Genoa, the rest of the musical cast does not detract from the performances of Giorgio Giuseppini (Jacopo Fiesco) and Leon Kim (Paolo Albiani). He is THE main reason not to miss this new, musically successful production of the Carlo Felice Opera.
*Simon Boccanegra* can be interpreted as a dual political and personal tragedy: at the behest of his friend Paolo Albiani, the plebeian Simon Boccanegra agrees to be elected Doge of Genoa, in the hope of marrying Maria, the daughter of the patrician Fiesco, with whom he had a child, also named Maria. But we learn from the prologue that the child has disappeared, and her mother is dying.
Twenty-five years later, Simon, still Doge, is struggling to impose a peace that no one wants and sees his lost child reappear in the person of Amelia, the adoptive daughter of a certain Andrea Grimaldi (Fiesco’s alias), courted by Paolo Albiani, and in love with the brooding Gabriele Adorno…
