Simon Boccanegra

I took a night off from reading to watch this 1988 production for the Glyndebourne Festival with Giancarlo Pasquetto in the title role and Elena Prokina as Maria. Apparently this isn’t considered one of the more successful performances available on DVD, but I have to say that I enjoyed it quite a lot. This may well become my favorite opera by Verdi; while the score isn’t as familiar (to me, anyway) as Rigoletto or Aida or any of the other great ones, great is exactly what it is. It’s also a fairly gripping drama, though very dark. The voices of Pasquetto and Prokina and most everybody else very good, and I thought Prokina in particular gave a great performance. Some of the others maybe less so. The sets were simple without being austere, the costumes seemed designed to reveal something about their characters rather than complicate their image, and the color scheme was vibrant throughout. But what a great score. I’m looking forward to seeing another performance.