Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra at Liceu

Simon Boccanegra is an opera with a prologue and three acts with music by Giuseppe Verdi and a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, Giuseppe Montanelli and Arrigo Boito (who is responsible for the revised version), based on the homonymous theatrical work by Antonio García Gutiérrez. The original version premiered at Teatro La Fenice in Venice on the 12th of March 1857. Given the difficulties arising from the original storyline, a revised version, with changes by Arrigo Boito, was performed at La Scala in Milan on the 24th of March 1881. This version, including its famous Council Chamber scene at the end of Act I, is the one that is most often performed nowadays. Barcelona’s Liceu opera house is now set to stage this wonderful work that ponders on the price one has to pay for success.

When the corsair Simon Boccanegra was young, his lover died and their newly-born daughter vanished. Twenty-five years later, as the Archduke of Genova, he is reunited with his daughter Amelia, but his new-found happiness is threatened by his political enemies, including his daughter’s lover, Gabriele Adorno. That is a summary of the story of this opera which will star Plácido Domingo, Leo Nucci and Giovanni Meoni, three great performers. This version of Simon Boccanegra features a staging by José Luis Gómez that stands out for its austere and abstract distancing from historical references that could distort the work’s universal message. Tickets are available for purchase here.

Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra at Liceu
When: 12, 17, 22, 23, 25, 26, 28 and 29 April.
Where: Liceu.
Price: €12 to €299.
For further information please click here.