"The Tanglewood Festival Chorus did a marvelous job throughout, and Levine and the orchestra brought out the dramatic potency and the rich, darkly expressive coloring of this arresting score." - The Boston Globe
Continuing his ardent and insightful commitment to leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra in concert performances of opera, James Levine leads the orchestra, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, John Oliver, conductor, and a stellar cast of vocalists in Verdi’s stirring Simon Boccanegra, January 29 and 30 and February 3. Baritone José van Dam sings the title role, for which he has received international acclaim, along with soprano Barbara Frittoli as Amelia Grimaldi, Marcello Giordani as Gabriele Adorno, and bass-baritone James Morris in one of his signature roles as Jacopo Fiesco. Maestro Levine will participate in the BSO’s Pre-Concert Talk about Simon Boccanegra on Tuesday, February 3, at 6:30 p.m.
Verdi’s great opera Simon Boccanegra is rife with themes of unknown identities, thwarted love, betrayal, and political machinations. Genoa’s first Doge, or elected leader, Simon Boccanegra was a plebian who has risen to power via others’ greed, an event related in the opera’s Prologue. The three acts of the opera proper take place twenty-four years later and tell the story of Simon’s reunion with his long-lost daughter and reconciliation with his oldest enemy. Originally written and produced in 1857, Simon Boccanegra was extensively revised by Verdi many years later. Its 1881 version, which met with the success denied the original, is the version we know today. Simon Boccanegra shows Verdi breaking free of the stale clichés of Romantic grand opera to create a work of searing and compelling emotion.
![[James Levine]](/images/_images/_musicians/James_Levinex156.jpg)
