Simon Boccanegra

A grand story -- a pirate gets elected as the Doge over the aristocracy's objections. He had a secret affair, woman dies, baby disappears, woman's dad is mad; grudges abound. Twenty-years later, a wiser and older Simon is trying to hold a fractured city together -- when he finds his daughter, who is love with one of his rivals, and a class war between the patricians and plebeians he is stuck in the middle of.

A grand show! Italian palazzo grandeur, crown moulding, textured walls -- a step up from some of DNO's other staging. The visuals delivered all night: windows that could fake day turning into night; smoke and blinding lights; quick set changes that kept the momentum. I'm a sucker for big choruses and this production delivered.

Singing was really impressive across the board. Amelia's voice was piercing, Fiesco's bass was moving, Adorno was a strong solo and harmonised really nicely with Amelia -- indicating that finally, they are Meant To Be, I guess. Paolo's villainy was a bit lol to me, mostly because the orchestra kept overshadowing him.

The hectic council chamber scene with the "kidnapper" getting cursed was a real highlight. I was in the nosebleeds so I lost detail in the facial expressions but the fear in the crowd madness vibe came through pretty loud and clear.

Story-wise, I enjoyed and appreciated the forgiveness-across-generations arc. And the final scene of Simon dying on the same slab from the opening scene landed really well.

Less fun: the constant hand-wringing over Maria & Amelia's purity, raised in act one and again in act two at which point I was just like, "ugh guys" -- just made me think of how protecting a woman's chastity has always been a mechanism of controlling us.

The ending ran a liiiiiittle too long, but it was also really warm in the theatre and I was sitting right in between two people who kept coughing (an observation, I know no one WANTS to cough in the theatre); and Paolo just vanishes off to the scaffold with zero ceremony. I think the final scenes were staged wonderfully, with the city all dressed in black -- mourners, little angels of death calling Simon, the gravity of his fate.

Minor gripes aside, I would recommend it. A nice, grand opera. :-)