Simon Boccanegra review — riveting Verdi to stir the soul
★★★★★Bradford's year as UK City of Culture will doubtless have many memorable events. But I doubt whether anything will stir the soul, shiver the spine and raise the roof like this concert staging of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra.
The tragedy was that the splendid St George's Hall had so many empty seats. Immaculately conducted by Antony Hermus, Opera North's magnificent chorus and superbly assured orchestra deserved a full house. And you would have to travel a long way, and pay a lot more money, to hear Verdi's dark drama of violent vendettas and long-festering feuds delivered with more intensity and character than by the cast assembled here.
Happily, the show travels onwards, including to London next month. It's worth catching just to be immersed in the opera's great council chamber scene. And literally immersed is what you are in this tumultuous production. The chorus lines the aisles of the auditorium or glowers down from the balconies to hurl out (or, even more chillingly, whisper) its exclamations of anger or shock. Meanwhile, on stage, Boccanegra pleads for the warring clans of plebs and toffs to make peace (some hope!) and his newly found daughter denounces the quivering villain who abducted her. Local government politics can rarely have been so riveting.
That's the evening's best 15 minutes, but the rest is excellent too. There's the wonderfully touching moment when Roland Wood's nobly sung Boccanegra, played with the haunted stare of a Shakespearean hero torn between political allegiances and paternal love, is finally reconciled with his bitter rival, Vazgen Gazaryan's superbly menacing Fiesco.
And there's smouldering passion from the two lovers, Sara Cortolezzis's Amelia and Andrés Presno's Adorno — Romeo and Juliet figures on different sides of the divide. Both need to sing more delicately and sweetly in places, but what a thrilling match they are when they let rip. And Cortolezzis, in particular, has a quicksilver volatility about her acting.
The semi-staging by PJ Harris is more cramped than it need be, because Anna Reid's set of civic arches and pillars divides what little space there is in front of the orchestra into three different areas. But I liked their idea of turning the tribal conflicts of 14th-century Genoa into what seems like a modern-day election campaign, with everyone wearing either a red or blue rosette, and Petrarch's despairing line — 'I' vo gridando: Pace, pace, pace' (I cry for peace) — blazed across the front of the stage. Seven centuries after he wrote those words, they still resonate.165minTouring to May 24, operanorth.co.uk
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Simon Boccanegra review — riveting Verdi to stir the soul
★★★★★Bradford's year as UK City of Culture will doubtless have many memorable events. But I doubt whether anything will stir the soul, shiver the spine and raise the roof like this concert staging of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra. The tragedy was that the splendid St George's Hall had so many empty seats. Immaculately conducted by Antony Hermus, Opera North's magnificent chorus and superbly assured orchestra deserved a full house. And you would have to travel a long way, and pay a lot more money, to hear Verdi's dark drama of violent vendettas and long-festering feuds delivered with more intensity and character than by the cast assembled here. Happily, the show travels onwards, including to London next month. It's worth catching just to be immersed in the opera's great council chamber scene. And literally immersed is what you are in this tumultuous production. The chorus lines the aisles of the auditorium or glowers down from the balconies to hurl out (or, even more chillingly, whisper) its exclamations of anger or shock. Meanwhile, on stage, Boccanegra pleads for the warring clans of plebs and toffs to make peace (some hope!) and his newly found daughter denounces the quivering villain who abducted her. Local government politics can rarely have been so riveting. That's the evening's best 15 minutes, but the rest is excellent too. There's the wonderfully touching moment when Roland Wood's nobly sung Boccanegra, played with the haunted stare of a Shakespearean hero torn between political allegiances and paternal love, is finally reconciled with his bitter rival, Vazgen Gazaryan's superbly menacing Fiesco. And there's smouldering passion from the two lovers, Sara Cortolezzis's Amelia and Andrés Presno's Adorno — Romeo and Juliet figures on different sides of the divide. Both need to sing more delicately and sweetly in places, but what a thrilling match they are when they let rip. And Cortolezzis, in particular, has a quicksilver volatility about her acting. The semi-staging by PJ Harris is more cramped than it need be, because Anna Reid's set of civic arches and pillars divides what little space there is in front of the orchestra into three different areas. But I liked their idea of turning the tribal conflicts of 14th-century Genoa into what seems like a modern-day election campaign, with everyone wearing either a red or blue rosette, and Petrarch's despairing line — 'I' vo gridando: Pace, pace, pace' (I cry for peace) — blazed across the front of the stage. Seven centuries after he wrote those words, they still resonate.165minTouring to May 24, Follow @timesculture to read the latest reviews
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