The San Francisco Opera is set to present a complimentary performance of “Simon Boccanegra” on Sept. 19, 2026 at 2 p.m. The performance will be held in celebration of the opening of the company’s 104th season and comes after the orchestra and management came to a new agreement following a strike that saw opening night canceled. In order to attend {…}
San Francisco Opera’s 2026–27 Season is set to open with Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra.” The opera will be presented in Claus Guth’s production, remounted for San Francisco Opera by director Katherine M. Carter. Music Director Eun Sun Kim will lead the opera with an all star cats that includes Mongolian baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat in the title role. He will be joined {…}
(Photo: Ben van Duin) For its final presentation of the season, the Dutch National Opera brought together a stellar cast under the musical direction of Fabio Luisi, conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra, with stage direction by Jetske Mijnssen for a new production of Verdi’s emotionally and politically complex opera “Simon Boccanegra” in the revised 1881 version with its text by Arrigo Boito. And it did {…}
The Dutch National Opera is set to present Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra.” The company will present the opera as part of the Holland Festival and Fabio Luisi will conduct the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Jetske Mijnssen will direct the new production. The new production by Mijnssen sets Verdi’s opera in 1881, the year the revised version premiered and when Italy was united {…}
(Credit: Michele Crosera) Genova, Italy’s sixth largest city, where the story of “Simon Boccanegra” unfolds, is rarely featured in opera. Despite its glorious history and stunning monuments, it barely registers with tourists visiting Italy. Many know it as the birthplace of Christopher Columbus (1451‑1506) and as the origin city for the culinary magic of garlic, pine nuts, basil leaves and {…}
Rarely has a single performance so cornered the discographic record of an opera as Claudio Abbado’s “Simon Boccanegra” from 1977. And my use of the possessive is, in this case, far from aleatory: Abbado lays claim to the score with an authority scarcely less than Verdi’s own—or would Hugo Shirley otherwise have spoken in superlatives so unsparingly when Gramophone revisited {…}
“Simon Boccanegra” – in its standard 1881 revision – is an undisputed, though infrequently performed, masterpiece. But what of its very first iteration from 1857? Its premiere, at Venice’s La Fenice, famously turned into a fiasco. Julian Budden, for example, admitted to the hostility with which the libretto was received, while Verdi himself, in a letter to Giraldoni, wryly picked {…}
Ludovic Tézier has withdrawn from his performances of “Simon Boccanegra” at the Berlin State Opera. The baritone took to social media and said, “Dear friends, I am sorry to confirm that the rest of my series at the Staatsoper Berlin has to be cancelled. Prudence must lead and rest must prevail. I am sure you will understand. Take good care {…}
The Polish National Opera is set to perform Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra” in a new production by Agnieszka Smoczyńska. The production, which will be performed on Feb. 14, 16, 19, 21, 23, 2025, will offer a fresh take in which the story is transformed into a futuristic tale of Europe that resembles the biblical desert – a place scorched by the sun, {…}
Rai5 is set to present the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma’s opening night production of Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra.” Rai Cultura will produce the recording which will be shown at 7:15 p.m. on Nov. 27, 2024. The production will be directed by Richard Jones with sets and costumes by Antony McDonald. Michele Mariotti will conduct the production which will star Luca Salsi {…}
Prima Classic is hinting at a new recording of Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra.” The recording company posted a picture of the Teatro San Carlo’s poster of the current cast of the Verdi opera and said, “‘Simon Boccanegra!’ Something is going on…” The cast for the upcoming concert performances includes Ludovic Tézier in the title role, Michele Pertusi as Jacopo Fiesco, Mattia Olivieri as {…}