Customer Reviews

Verdi - Simon Boccanegra / Levine, Te Kanawa, Metropolitan Opera

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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It is a tribute to my love of this production, which I already owned on video, that it was one of my first purchases on the DVD format. Like many people,I have long regarded Simon Boccanegra as a masterpiece on the same level as Otello and Falstaff, and indeed Verdi returned to revise much of the music and libretto after he had completed the former.
Here, each of the principals gives a marvellously involved performance, and the criticisms which can apply to some Met productions about a lack of dramatic credibility, fall by the wayside - del Monaco knows his job and, though traditional, presents a totally believable and visually sumptuous slice of late Renaissance Genoa.
Levine offers a lucid and fluent account of the score, tender and poetic in the scenes between Chernov and te Kanawa, majestic and implaccable with the entrance of Lloyd - without doubt the most moving and sonorous Fiesco I have ever seen.
Domingo defies age, and presents a totally credible Quattrocento figure. He sings with beautiful mezza voce tone in the first duet with te Kanawa and virile splendour in his aria and elsewhere, with only the slightest hint of strain towards the end.
Kiri is vocally pristine as Amelia and her physical beauty is as important an asset in this role as it was as Desdemona - the role of her Met debut.
The virtual disapperance of Chernov after these performances is, to me, incomprehensible. Perhaps his essentially lyric baritone was too slender for the House, but as recorded here he offers a Boccanegra of insight, depth and vulnerabilty. He is a subtler actor than either Milnes or the late, great Cappuccilli, even if he lacks their ringing tones in the Council Chamber scene.I defy anyone with a heart to remain unmoved in his final duet with Lloyd.
I cannot recommend the experience of this performance highly enough. May it convert many people to opera on DVD, Simon Boccanegra, and, above all, Verdi.

SIMON BOCCANEGRA is one of Verdi's most difficult operas to pull of successfully. First of all, unlike most operas, it is not a love story. Though the relationship between Amelia and Gabrielle is profiled here, it is not the focal point of the plot. Furthermore, there is a constant somber mood that covers the entire opera. Still, this opera is Verdi at his best. The music is haunting and powerful, the plot interesting and touching.
THis production, taped at the Met in 1995 is just about as good as you'll see anywhere. Too often we hear of operas "golden age," a time when an opera like this could be cast without a weak link. Well, the same thing goes here. There are four amazing singers under the direction of a great Verdi conductor.
Vladimir Chernov uses is powerful baritone to the full effect here and proves himself to be a terrific Verdi singer. He is also one hell of an actor, to boot! Robert Lloyd sings just as well as Fiesco, but acts even better than Chernov. When he is on stage, one feels that the opera is about him. In it is true luxury casting to have Kiri Te Kanawa and Placido Domingo as the young lovers. OK, so both of them were in their fifties at this point and hardly look like young lovers, but still, their voices sound as youthful as ever and it is a treat!
Levine brings alot out of the orchestra and his conducting shows true mastery, particularly in the Council Chamber scene.
The production, by Gian Carlo del Monaco, is colorful at times, dark and somber at other times- how perfect for an opera such as this!

Simon Boccanegra is greatly underappreciated. For the patient listener, it is an inestimable treasure. The opera may not be ecspecially tuneful, but its epic plot and moving composition, place it at the top of Verdi's Operas.
This production has no weak points, it delivers everwhere. First Chernov in the Title role. His voice is very french, with a nasal edge and quick vibrato. He is a Lyric Baritone, which worked very well. Simone is not a powerful and willing leader, he is a man of peace and reflection, who hates shows of force. He is an extremely concilliatory Doge, with a romantic heart. His place as Doge was taken only for the sake of his love for Maria. His Lyrical baritone made the character vulnerable and sypathetic. this something that Milnes could not do with his boccanegra. I cannot imagine the role acted more perfectly, Chernov pulls at your heartstrings all evening.
Robert Lloyd as Fiesco was very convincing. he was indeed a "real" bass (I heard his F just fine.) more importatly he is an exemplary actor. Whether playing the enraged old man, desperatley wishing for vengance, or the supplicant father, Lloyd is hauntingly convincing.
Bruno Pola deserves his own section as the evil Paolo. His is a baritone of great power. He can easily overpower the more lyric voice of Chernov which is extremely dramatically effective. From a dramatic standpoint, he is a short, fat, man, who was very evocative of the evil character. He was a perfect Paolo.
Te Kanawa sang very well as Amelia. It is almost stunning how her beauty completely belies her age. She does not look, or sound, old. She is a really wonderul Amerlia.
Domingo is the only bother visually. He is, and looks, 55. At first he looks silly in his youthful armor embracing Amelia. However, he sounds fabulous. And as the opera continues, you forget that he is old. He continues to act and sing like a 30 year old, and by the 2nd act you begin to believe him. his aria is Picture Perfect.
Enjoy this operatic treasure

A pleasure to watch this under-appreciated Verdi masterpiece being performed so well. Kanawa has such a beautiful voice and the role of Gabriele fits Domingo like a glove. Dramatically, he grows more and more involved as the story develops. If for no other reason, this DVD is a must, because of the remarkable portrayal by Chernov, as fine an individual performance as I have ever seen, in any role. His acting could not be improved upon and the close ups demonstrate this again and again. Such an impressive voice. A real shame there is so little of his work available, all the more reason to have this DVD.

I love almost everything about this opera production. Chernov is a great Boccanegra, and the more I see the dying scenes, the greater I think he is. I was ready to hate Domingo as a young lover. But you know, once I listened, I forgot all about Domingo being older than Simone (Chernov). What he makes of the part is amazing, especially since it's not a very graceful character at all. Te Kanawa is very affecting and very good as Amelia. Their singing the parts of young lovers so well made me realize what great artists they both are. When Amelia and Simone find one another, the moment is magical and perfect.
Robert Lloyd was a very good Fiesco and when he and Simone were reconciled, it was a very powerful moment. THis scene is tremendous and the singers act very effectively here. Two fighting men reconciling --- in essence, a son and his father (in law). It is a great moment here; the singers show how important the moment is, without overplaying it either. Even Fiesco's embrace as Simone falls when he is dying, is exactly right because of course someone must catch Simone as he falls and it is right and necessary that it be Fiesco who has wanted him dead all this time. It made me think of how happy Romeo and Juliet could be if their families would stop warring.
Every scene was thoughtfully done and seemed right. If every production of this opera were this good, it would be among the most popular of Verdi's operas. It certainly is for me, and that's saying something given how crazy I am about Verdi!

In keeping with a lot of MET productions this is largely traditional. No surprises here. It is well sung even though Te Kanawa is near the end of her career. Domingo does his usual excellent work. Chernov is a great singing actor in the title role. The sound is excellent; the orchestra under James Levine is a known quality. Here he allows the music breathing space, not pushing forward as he can do. Easily preferable to the only other DVD Simon - an earlier MET production with a much weaker cast.

A then-new Met BOCCANEGRA production that was panned in 1995 (and earned a retrospective eye-roll from former GM Joseph Volpe in his memoir) benefits from being cut down to size for home viewing. There is much to fill and dazzle the eye in Michael Scott's vast, elaborate, and no doubt frighteningly expensive sets; the problem is what director Giancarlo Del Monaco has his stage-savvy cast do (and not do) in front of them. The principals desultorily wander about the large staging area when not striking vacant, all-too-familiar poses. When one longs for them to generate sparks by locking eyes and building on one another's expressions, they are just staring off into the middle distance (or, in the case of Kiri Te Kanawa in her first scene, at the conductor). The production is not stupid or infuriating, just dull and underfelt in the well-funded, big-house way -- all picture-book effects, lavish upholstery, and heavy, ungainly costumes. Moments such as Simon's realization of the depth of Amelia's love for Gabriele (Act II), which beg for strong dramatic marking, pass as if insignificant. On the few occasions Del Monaco ventures to galvanize, the choice usually is a strange one (there is swordplay between Simon and Fiesco during their conversation in the prologue, unsupported by the libretto and unlikely for these characters). In the final scene, when Simon asks why Fiesco has turned his face away, it is difficult to resist the cheap shot, at least to oneself -- faces turned away have been the norm all evening. Only very late in the game, in the bass/baritone reconciliation duet, Simon's blessing of the lovers and his subsequent expiration, does the anesthesia of the direction lift, and we begin to get involving human interaction. It could be argued that Verdi and Boito, in their 1881 revision of BOCCANEGRA, provided music and words of such power that the opera needs little assistance from a director. This is fortunate, if true, for little assistance is what it gets here. Video director Brian Large brings his considerable knowhow and ingenuity to bear, and his own work is as enterprising as Del Monaco's is flat. He does sophisticated, drama-enhancing things with compositions and shifting focus, and he generously covers every visual diversion Scott puts within range of his cameras (including a live falcon in Act I and a working fireplace in the Doge's quarters).

The principal lure here, more than superficial visual splendor, is the musical presentation. Plácido Domingo, who sang many Verdi tenor roles on stage, came to Gabriele Adorno surprisingly late in his career (he even had made it to Stiffelio slightly earlier). He need not have waited so long, for it proves a fine fit -- the performance has class, finish, and musicianship of the highest level. In Act I, when informed by Fiesco that (as Fiesco mistakenly believes) Amelia Grimaldi was not of noble birth but was a foundling, Gabriele has a short response that translates roughly to "I love this orphan!" In an opera full of sublime music, there is nothing particularly remarkable about the line Verdi wrote there, but Domingo, in that voice as singular and recognizable as any in the history of opera, inflects it in such a way that it shines forth like a shaft of warm sunlight. It is a small moment, but it is in the accumulation of thousands of those moments, and the knowledge that each new night could bring a dozen more, that legends are built. Only a few notes of Gabriele take him into the part of his range that had become thin and pinched by the mid-1990s; mostly he is in spectacular voice. Robert Lloyd (Fiesco) and Kiri Te Kanawa (Amelia/Maria) were at a comparably advanced point in their respective careers in 1995, and their instruments do not hide the ravages of time so well as Domingo's does. The soprano's middle range had lost much of its native loveliness, although the high notes still float; the bass has neither the most powerful nor the most glamorous sound a seasoned BOCCANEGRAphile will have heard in the role. Both, nevertheless, make virtues of their experience and their comfort with the style. Bruno Pola brings a novel comic touch to Paolo. There is nothing of the Satanic Boito heavy in his jolly impersonation, but in an unconventional way, he is effective. The youngster among the principals, Vladimir Chernov in the title role, did nothing better in his Met heyday. His is a finer, more slender baritone than that possessed by some illustrious predecessors in this Mount Olympus of Verdi baritone roles, but it is an attractive one and serves him well in a performance of dignity and eloquence.

Eloquence is also the watchword in the pit. Although for atmospheric, nearly pictorial effects (such as the sea music of the Act I prelude), James Levine is not the equal of Claudio Abbado on his famous DG audio recording (probably his more recent TDK DVD as well, although its dreadful male cast keeps me from listening again to find out), his conducting leaves nothing to be desired for verve or point. I also will be so bold as to state that no commercial BOCCANEGRA in any format, not even the Abbado/DG with the Scala forces of the late 1970s, provides such a thrilling virtuoso demonstration of the score's possibilities as the Met Orchestra and Chorus provides here.

Though this is kept at the level of a very good performance, rather than a great one, by its stage director's anemic limning of the drama, the other DVD options available at the time of this writing (an earlier Met with Milnes in decline, the Solti/Covent Garden, the Abbado/Florence, and the newest one with Hampson) all are less desirable for various reasons. The assets of this one -- especially the tenor, the brilliant video direction and technical quality, and the splendid orchestral and choral response -- make it a first choice one can get behind with at least reasonable enthusiasm.

Simon Boccanegra is a "grand" opera in every sense and is woefully neglected by most opera companies due to its lack of name recognition and the obvious problems in casting strong enough low register male voices (Simon, Fiesco, Paolo) who can hold their own in their many dual dramatic encounters. Chernov is not a well known baritone in the United States which is too bad since he really gets this difficult role absolutely right (even better than his more famous counterparts in other videos, namely Milnes, Hampson, and Cappucilli). Robert Lloyd is a compelling Fiesco and a credible foil to Chernov. Domingo and Te Kanawa might have a little past their sell-by-dates but handle their supporting roles as well as any that I have seen. The staging is large and traditional but effective in this video presentation.The video direction by Brian Large is extremely well done and enhances this opera's impact. By this point in his career, Levine had become a consummate Verdian and extracts every ounce of drama from this rather dark score. For those unfamiliar with this middle Verdi work, this DVD makes an excellent introduction and will give much enjoyment.

...and therefore his greatest opera!

That's not an opinion shared by everyone, I know, but watching and listening to this production by the Metropolitan Opera might concern a few. Verdi himself thought, as he put it, that he'd done something worthwhile with Simon Boccanegra, and he revised it and promoted it assiduously. In no other opera is his music so consistent, both in melodic invention and in sustained development. The aesthetic failings of earlier operas, in my ears, were their episodic unevenness and an ever-present possibility of lapsing into schmaltzy bumptiousness just at the wrong moment. In Simon Boccanegra, Verdi achieves a unity of voices and orchestra, of song and symphony that opera lovers are more likely to expect from Wagner. But Verdi never lets his musical invention stagnate into bombast. Conductor James Levine takes a few passages on this recording a little too briskly and bouncily, mostly in the first scenes, but the superb musicianship of the Met orchestra fills Verdi's score with an opulence that matches the visual splendor of sets and costumes extravagant even by New York standards. The only visible flaw in the production is the weathered face of Placido Domingo, decades too old for the role of Adorno, but who could want to replace him with a prettier face when he sings so heroically? Kiri Te Kanawa is divine in the role of Maria/Amelia, Adorno's lver and Boccanegra's lost daughter. The love story, however, is secondary to the tale of hatred and reconciliation, acted out by the two old men, Simon and his vengeful enemy Jacopo Fiesco, sung by baritones Vladimir Chernov and Robert Lloyd. I have heard more beautiful male voices - most recently that of Dmitri Hvorostosky and Vitalij Kowaljow as Boccanegra and Fiesco in the current San Francisco production - but Chernov and Lloyd compensate for their vocal roughness with powerful expressiveness. Camera work is way good, as they say in Hollywood, and the recording quality is clear and well balanced between stage and orchestra pit. Even the subtitles are better than average - more accurate and more ample.

Critics and program writers often declare that Simon Boccanegra is difficult to stage. There's an awkward jump of 25 years between the first act and the principal drama of the 2nd--4th acts. There are several improbable coincidences... but what opera lacks its improbabilities? None of that detracts, to my mind, from the dramatic grandeur of Verdi's concept, of the father-daughter bond that overcomes implacable enmity and reptilian betrayal. The libretto is not without melodrama, but it approaches Shakespearean tragedy far closer than the operas like Othello and MacBeth that Verdi based on actual Shakespeare plays. Believe me, folks won't go home from Simon Boccanegra saying "great singing but what a dumb plot!"

Kiri Te Kanawa truly is a marvel to behold. Her voice is buttery and her acting is without peer. Her pairing with Placido Domingo is a wonderful matchup. They both bring excitment to this work.