La Scala artists join forces to play Verdis Simon Boccanegra

(pics to be updated with screenshot of the video)

For the inauguration of its project with Google Arts and Culture the Teatro alla Scala has chosen to involve some of the most important singers of our time performing a piece that is maybe not universally famous but is really in the heart of all those who love Verdi and La Scala. Luca Salsi, Krassimira Stoyanova, Francesco Meli, Dmitrij Beloselskij, Dalibor Jenis and Andrea Mastroni joined the La Scala Choir and Orchestra in a long-distance performance of part of the Finale of Simon Boccanegra's First Act.
101 musicians have contributed from their homes to one of the most beautiful concertati ever written by Verdi, which is also an exhortation to unity and brotherhood.

Verdi had a special fondness for this opera which had been commissioned by the Teatro La Fenice in Venice during the years when his relations with La Scala were broken off.

Photo: Luca Salsi

e wrote himself the draft for the libretto, based on a drama by Antonio Gutierrez, and asked the docile Francesco Maria Piave to put it into verse. In 1853 a drama by Gutierrez had already provided the inspiration for Il trovatore, with which the new opera would share the incomprehensibility of the plot.

ph. Francesco Meli

After the premiere in Venice in 1857 Verdi wrote to Countess Maffei: "Boccanegra was a fiasco almost as big as that of La Traviata. I believed I had done something passable but it seems I was wrong. We will see later who will be wrong".

Photo: Krassimira Stoyanova

Simon Boccanegra's revenge starts at the initiative of the publisher Giulio Ricordi. Many years had passed since the break with La Scala in 1845, due to economic disagreements with the impresarios for the staging of Giovanna d’Arco. In 1872 Verdi had presented the European premiere of Aida at La Scala and in 1874 he had conducted the premiere of the Requiem Mass, but the reconciliation had remained halfway through. Ricordi suggested to Verdi to collaborate with the young poet and composer Arrigo Boito for an operatic version of Shakespeare's Otello, but the first joint project was a second version of Simone, which was successfully staged in March 1881. It was in this process of re-elaboration that the final scene of the first act was born, which according to the critic and musicologist Massimo Mila is "one greatest creations by Verdi, and therefore of the music of all times and places".

Even in the second version Simon Boccanegra, with his dense and gloomy orchestral colours, did not easily enter the repertoire of Italian theatres and in the first half of the 20th century it rather successed on German scenes thanks to conductors such as Klemens Krauss and interpreters such as Heinrich Schlusnus, and at the New York Metropolitan under the baton of Tullio Serafin.

At La Scala Simone reappeared in 1955, conducted by Francesco Molinari-Pradelli in a staging by Mario Frigerio with sets by Nicola Benois, starring Aldo Protti and Cesare Siepi in the leading roles.

The first decisive step for a correct evaluation of the opera was once again thanks to Gianandrea Gavazzeni who conducted it in 1965 in a staging by Margherita Wallman and again Benois, with Guelfi and Ghiaurov in the roles of Simone and Fiesco.

The consecration in the eyes of scholars and in the hearts of the public took place on December 7, 1971 with the historic edition conducted by Claudio Abbado with Giorgio Strehler directing, sets by Ezio Frigerio and the voices of Piero Cappuccilli, Mirella Freni, Gianni Raimondi (on disc we will hear José Carreras) and Nicolai Ghiaurov.

The production, immediately recognized as a masterpiece, was revived in 1973, 76, 78, 79, 81 and 82 becoming a milestone in the history of La Scala and the tastes of the public. Mila wrote about the Finale of Act 1: "Only one term of comparison could be imagined for this musical recreation of the session of a political organism: the tumultuous choirs of the Passion according to St Matthew by Bach. It’s the same height, without any exaggeration".

Daniel Barenboim brought the title back to La Scala in 2010 in the production signed by Federico Tiezzi with Plácido Domingo, Anja Harteros, Fabio Sartori and Ferruccio Furlanetto in the leading roles. The last resumption of the production, in 2018, was conducted by Myung-Whun Chung starring Leo Nucci, Krassimira Stoyanova, Fabio Sartori, Dmitrij Beloselskij and Dalibor Jenis.