Organization

Singer

Baritone

Todd Thomas

Simon Boccanegra

Bass

Phillip Ens

Jacopo Fiesco

Soprano

Lara Ciekiewicz

Amelia Grimaldi

Brett Polegato

Paolo Albiani

Tenor

Jason Slayden

Gabriele Adorno

Neil Craighead

Pietro

Joseph Bulman

Captain of the Crossbowmen

Mezzo-soprano

Tasha Farivar

Amelia's maid

Conductor

Timothy Vernon

Stage director

Glynis Leyshon

Set designer

Camellia Koo

Video designer

Jamie Nesbitt

Lighting designer

Kevin Lamotte

Choreographer

Jacques Lemay

Chorus master

Giuseppe Pietraroia

Costume designer

Pacific Opera Victoria

Italian

Victoria

Canada

Royal Theatre

English

Approved

Simon Boccanegra Verdi

SIMON BOCCANEGRA/VerdiPlaying October 13 - 23, 2016 At the Royal Theatre | In Italian with English surtitles www.pov.bc.caAfter he is elected Doge of Genoa, ...

Verdi, SIMON BOCCANEGRA: Todd Thomas (Simon Boccanegra), Lara Ciekiewicz (Maria Boccanegra/Amelia Grimaldi), Philip Ens (Jacopo Fiesco), Jason Slayden (Gabriele Adorno), Brett Polegato (Paulo Albiani), and Neil Craighead (Pietro), Victoria Symphony Orchestra, Timothy Vernon, conductor, Pacific Opera Chorus, Giuseppe Pietraroia, Chorus Master, Glynis Leyshon, director, Royal Theatre Victoria, October 13, 2016.
Simon Boccanegra is a connoisseur’s opera. Far from Verdi’s most popular work, it is nonetheless considered by Verdians as one of his finest—not least because his revisions of 1881 enjoyed the benefit of his late style and the help of Arrigo Boito (the librettist of Otello and Falstaff) as its script doctor. Part of the reason for its relative obscurity is the dearth of those arias we love in Verdi (the lead character, for example, gets none), but the compensation lies in the superb ensemble writing—particularly its exquisite duets—and the almost through-composed music, with its rich textures and sinuous continuity. The music, more subtle and harmonically bold than that of Verdi’s earlier works, is of great beauty—and of great power where called for. It’s a style that well suits the complexity of the opera, with its admixture of political and domestic conflicts. In keeping with the political slant is the dominance of male voices, almost all of them deep—three baritones (Verdi’s favourite) and a bass, with only one tenor and one soprano—the lone woman in the opera other than a seconda donna who barely appears. This preponderance gives the work its dark tinta, matching its somber mood.

Major attractions of the opera other than its music are the nobility of its protagonist, his loving relationship with his newly-discovered daughter, and the complexity of its central male characters: Boccanegra’s would-be nemeses, Jacopo Fiesco and Gabriele Adorno, as well as the Doge himself. Fiesco is a man obsessed with vengeance, though too noble to achieve it by foul means, and with a heart capable of love but caught in the grip of hate. Adorno is a man wracked by jealous love conflicting with an obligation of revenge. Boccanegra is a pirate who becomes a politician who has come to prefer peace, reconciliation, and love to violence.

Simon Boccanegra by Verdi, From (2016/2016), Directed by Glynis Leyshon,, Conductor Timothy Vernon, Royal Theatre, Victoria, Canada

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