Verdi: Simon Boccanegra Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Verdi: Simon Boccanegra Blu-ray Movie Review

One of Verdi's lesser known operas receives a largely excellent production on this new Blu-ray.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 4, 2010

It’s perhaps too bad that Charles Dickens never wrote a libretto for an opera, though several of his works have become musicals, including megahits (Oliver!), well respected long running semi-hits (The Mystery of Edwin Drood, based upon Dickens’ unfinished novel) and out and out flops (Pickwick, which was a big hit on the West End, produced the Top 40 smash “If I Ruled the World,” but which failed to find an audience on this side of the pond once it transferred to Broadway). Dickens’ incredibly complex plots, where usually some minor character from the first couple of chapters would turn out to be someone at the crux of all the action once the novel wended its way toward its denouement, seems, well, perfectly operatic. Mix in patently operatic characters like Miss Havisham, to name but one, and the foundation is certainly there for some grand operatic work firmly in the late 19th century tradition. Why, you might ask, this focus on Charles Dickens in a review purportedly about Giuseppe Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra? Because I frankly couldn’t help but think of Dickens as I traversed Verdi’s long, multi-generational saga about illicit love, illegitimate children, power and class struggle, and sociopolitical foment. Instead of 15th century Genoa, place this opera in the gritty world of Industrial Revolution London, and you most assuredly have a Dickensian plot, in substance if not in tone.

Roberto Frontali as Simon Boccanegra

Simon Boccanegra was one of Verdi’s few out and out flops, at least initially, in his long and storied career. This hugely complex piece, a Prologue and three acts’ worth of action which spans decades, was too much for most audiences to comprehend when it first debuted in 1857. Though it received a few subsequent productions in the ensuing years, Verdi himself considered the piece more or less an abject failure, and pretty much refused to even discuss it, despite his publisher’s repeated insistence that with a little editing and revision, it could be a blockbuster on the order of Il Trovatore. (Not so coincidentally, both Simon Boccanegra and Il Trovatore were based on plays by Antonia Garcia Gutiérrez). It wasn’t until close to twenty five years later, once Verdi’s publisher had an actual out and out offer for a new production of Simon, that Verdi finally relented and agreed to take another look at the piece. While the 1881 presentation of the revised version was a succès d’estime, the opera has never enjoyed the long-lived reputation and repertoire status that so many of Verdi’s other pieces have.

Part of what may be problematic for audiences is, unlike a Dickens book where the reader can turn back to page 27 to reacquaint themselves with whomever turns out to be the hidden force behind the action, in an opera, time has marched on and it can be daunting to keep track of the characters. When one considers the fact that after the Prologue, which sets up the conflict between Simon (Roberto Frontali), his lover’s father, Fiesco (Giacomo Prestia), and the illegitimate daughter, Maria, Simon has fathered with the lover, we then jump ahead 25 years and are dealing with not just those two characters well on in years, but also the fact that Fiesco has assumed a new identity and, through a patently Dickensian series of events, has unknowingly adopted his own illegitimate granddaughter (Simon’s daughter), whom he has named Amelia (Carmen Giannatasio). Mix in a series of subplots involving Amelia’s own love life, and the nascent political maneuverings of the Plebeians and Patricians, and one is left with a staggering amount of plot to wade through to understand the basics of the emotions at hand.

This is an often beautiful performance from the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, featuring an almost all Italian cast, certainly a plus when it comes to performing Verdi. With a largely minimalist set, the focus is squarely on the singing, and for the most part, the leads deliver. Frontali is a Verdi baritone in the best sense, lush and full, if sometimes a little lacking in nuance. Giannattasio is a quite commanding lyric soprano with a gorgeous higher register which never broadens into a screech. Giuseppe Gipali as Adorno delivers the tenor side of the equation with appealing liquidity and an assured tone. My only real complaint in fact is Giacomo Prestia’s Fiesco. While he has the natural gravitas of a bass, he devolves too often into an overly broad vibrato which makes any given tone somewhat uncertain sounding. Dramatically, he’s quite apt.

The young conductor Michele Mariotti marshals his forces quite admirably in this production, leading the orchestra through that positively Brahmsian Prologue in E major with passion and grace. He also elicits a good deal of fire from an orchestra and chorus that frankly could have sounded more provincial under a less able baton. Though Simon Boccanegra has perhaps oddly never received a lot of acclaim, possibly because it pales in comparison to some of Verdi’s more iconic pieces, the fact is the opera reveals the composer in top form, albeit one where he tends to work more organically, instead of segueing from aria to recitative. While that may have thrown his 19th century audiences for a bit of a loop, it reveals a prescient artist who was attempting to stretch the bounds of his art, however subtly at times.

Verdi: Simon Boccanegra Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Simon Boccanegra arrives on Blu-ray from ArtHaus Musik with a very strong AVC encoded 1080i "live" transfer in 1.78:1. The first thing you will notice about this production is how it is literally bathed in blue almost all of time. Absolutely gorgeous, but strangely never cold or icy, blue tones fill the stage for virtually the entire opera. The Prologue especially revels in this end of the spectrum, with low blue lighting accenting the emotional turmoil which is being set up for the rest of the piece. The sets are quite striking, if minimal, and include a slightly raked, mosaic floor stage and often geometrically patterned backdrops. The Blu-ray supports all of this fine detail with ease, and also reproduces the gorgeous, and often quite colorful, costumes very well. Black levels are excellent and contrast remains strong throughout the opera.

Verdi: Simon Boccanegra Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Just as good is Simon Boccanegra's crystal clear DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix (a lossless LPCM 2.0 fold down is also available). This is one of Verdi's more relatively restrained scores, though the burnished strings of the Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna sound warm and inviting even when not declaiming florid emotional underscore. Separation is quite inviting here, immersing the listener in what I assume is a very real reproduction of the soundfield within the Teatro Comunale di Bologna itself. Balance between the orchestra and singers is generally quite good, though Prestia's overly wide vibrato helps to occasionally bury him beneath the low massed tones of the orchestra. Fidelity is superb throughout here with excellent dynamic range.

Verdi: Simon Boccanegra Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are offered on the disc. The insert booklet has a good essay and plot synopsis.

Verdi: Simon Boccanegra Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Even ardent Verdi fans may never have experienced Simon Boccanegra. This Blu-ray offers a very well balanced production that features fine singing from almost all of the leads, and surprisingly supple work by a lesser known orchestra. This visual presentation puts the "blu(e)" in Blu-ray, and the audio presentation is similarly lustrous. Highly recommended.