Of all the mature Verdi
operas, i.e. from Rigoletto onwards,
only I vespri Siciliani and Simon
Boccanegra can be regarded as not
belonging to the standard repertoire.
These two, and especially Boccanegra,
appear now and then in the opera house
and on record. Since the advent of the
LP there have been a handful of complete
recordings, the one under consideration
being the first. It was followed, and
superseded, in 1958, by an EMI recording
conducted by Gabriele Santini and with
the legendary trio: Victoria de los
Angeles, Tito Gobbi and Boris Christoff.
After that we had to wait for almost
twenty years for an RCA offering, conducted
by Gianandrea Gavazzeni with Ricciarelli,
Cappuccilli and Raimondi. The young
Domingo took the part of Gabriele. DG
recorded Giorgio Strehler’s production
at La Scala a couple of years later,
Abbado conducting, Cappuccilli again
singing the title part with Freni, Carreras
and Ghiaurov. This version has ever
since been regarded as "definitive",
even if I retain a soft spot for the
Gavazzeni. Finally there was a live
recording on Capriccio from Tokyo in
the early 1990s. This was led by Roberto
Paternostro and featured Renato Bruson,
Mariana Nicolesco, Roberto Scandiuzzi
and Giuseppe Sabbatini. There, in a
nut-shell, is to the best of my knowledge,
the recorded history of Simon Boccanegra.
Although containing
numerous pages of wonderful music, this
opera is still somewhat forbidding in
its darkness. The story is full of melancholy
and the music, and especially the scoring,
is consistently clad in dark colours.
Moreover the cast is dominated by dark
voices, the only female voice being
Boccanegra’s daughter Maria.
The opera was first
performed in 1857 but was not a success,
even though some critics found it interesting.
It was taken as indicating a new direction
in Verdi’s writing, which was to culminate
in Otello thirty years later.
One can hear foreshadowings of the latter
work in Boccanegra. Verdi’s interest
in a united Italy is reflected in his
choice of subject, since the historical
Simon Boccanegra, Doge of Genua, had
the same ambitions. Never quite satisfied
with the first version, Verdi in 1880
got an opportunity to rework the opera
with the libretto revised by Arrigo
Boito who later made the masterly librettos
for Otello and Falstaff.
This version, which is the one commonly
performed, was premiered at La Scala
in February 1881. It is interesting
to read the cast list which contained,
among others, as Gabriele, Francesco
Tamagno, who was to become Verdi’s first
Otello, as Boccanegra, Victor Maurel,
who sang and acted the part so convincingly
that Verdi later wrote Iago’s part for
him, and as Fiesco the legendary Édouard
de Reszke. It was a great success, not
least because by then the audience was
ready for it, while in 1857 they still
expected music of the Rigoletto,
Trovatore and Traviata kind.
There is actually a recording of the
ur-Boccanegra, released about
a year ago by Opera Rara. It is a BBC
production, recorded in the 1970s with
John Matheson conducting and Sesto Bruscantini,
a bit late in his career, singing the
title part. I haven’t heard that performance
but according to reviews it shows why
the later version is preferable. It
is quite drastically reworked and performed
by a sympathetic conductor, who can
move the drama forward, and a great
singing-actor in the title part. This
opera can make its mark on stage and,
as here, on record.
The first sounds we
hear on this recording are unfortunately
not very inviting. The orchestra is
muddy and unfocused, the bass notes
are boomy and climaxes are distorted.
This is of course what we have come
to expect from Cetra recordings of this
age. To some degree it improves during
the course of the performance but it
is still variable. The distortion is
recurrent and there are also background
noises, although this was not a public
performance. The chorus has an important
role in this opera and is of course
also affected by the bad recording.
When we reach the end of the prologue
(CD1 track 5) both orchestra and chorus
are suddenly quite acceptably recorded.
Boccanegra’s banging of the door of
Fiesco’s palace is uncannily realistic.
Gradually we also realize that the conductor,
Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, a well-known
name in Italian opera recordings, has
a lot to say about this score. He moves
things on with real dramatic thrust
and there is not a dull moment in this
performance. He also manages to create
some atmosphere, as in the start of
act, the finely wrought prelude to Amelia’s
aria (CD1 track 6) which is well played
with tremolo strings and features a
fine clarinet soloist. A thousand pities
that he wasn’t offered a recording that
could do full justice to his efforts.
Luckily the solo voices
are generally well caught although even
they are afflicted by distortion, but
not to such a degree that it makes the
listening experience unpalatable. And
the solo singing is the sole reason
for acquiring this set. Here Cetra have
managed to gather five outstanding singers,
two of whom were to become great international
stars. They are caught very early in
their careers. Antonietta Stella had
made her debut just a year earlier and
is heard at the age of 22. We recognize
the timbre of the voice, a little colourless
in the middle register but with ringing
spinto high notes. She happened to come
to notice at about the time Tebaldi
and Callas were rising stars. In comparison
with them Stella pales a little, but
it was still a fine voice. At her first
entrance (CD1 track 6) with the aria
Come in quest’ora bruna, it is
possible to detect a slight nervousness,
but when that has been overcome she
sings with steady tone. Even so, her
singing is bland and faceless and this
to a certain degree can also be said
of many of her later recordings. To
be honest she improves through the opera,
and there are many delights along the
way. The duet with Gabriele, Vieni
a mirar (CD1 halfway through track
7) shows her to much better advantage
and the duet with Boccanegra, Orfanella
il tetto umile (CD1 track 10) is
even better. For her finest singing
- and at her best she is on a par with
Tebaldi - we have to go to the second
act duet with Gabriele, Tu qui?...
Amelia! (CD2 track 3). This was
indeed an auspicious recording debut!
The other newcomer,
Carlo Bergonzi, started his career in
1948, but as a baritone. His debut as
a tenor came in 1951, so this is the
early Bergonzi as we have been used
to hearing him. The first phrases we
hear from him are sung off-stage, but
it is at once obvious that here is a
classy voice. When he appears full-on,
we hear the sound that we have come
to love through the years. He has every
once of the expected elegance, fine
shadings, melting pianissimo and amazing
breath-control. Once or twice he is
over-emphatic, or should we say, over-enthusiastic,
but for most of the time he is his usual
stylish self, some intrusive "h"s
apart. The aria Sento avvampar nell’anima
(CD2 track 2), one of Verdi’s most intense
tenor arias, is also one of the high-spots
of this recording. He recorded that
aria again on the famous Philips album
with (practically) all Verdi’s tenor
arias, but that was nearly twenty-five
years later, By that time Bergonzi was
50 and, although still singing wonderfully,
he had lost some of the bloom so apparent
in this early recording. His soft singing
(Cielo pietoso, rendila ...)
is just as marvellous as we know it
from his Decca and DG recordings from
the late 1950s and 1960s.
The very first voice
we hear - a steady, powerful, darkish
baritone with a true ring to it - is
just cut out for Boccanegra but it is
in fact the much smaller role of Paolo.
The singer, Walter Monachesi, was probably
also relatively early in his career;
I remember hearing him 25 years after
this recording was made and he was still
singing well. He has a monologue at
the beginning of act 2 and it is magnificently
sung.
Boccanegra himself
is sung by Paolo Silveri who was one
of the leading Italian baritones during
a period when there were several of
them. During the ’forties and early
’fifties names like Carlo Tagliabue,
Gino Becchi, Tito Gobbi, Ettore Bastianini
and Aldo Protti were prominent; Silveri
ranks among them. He is to be heard
also on the Cetra La Gioconda,
recently reissued by Naxos, with Callas.
There we hear a big, sturdy voice which
easily portraits the evil Barnaba. I
have always thought his tone quite dry,
but as Boccanegra, recorded a year or
so earlier, he is in very good shape,
his voice a shade lighter than Monachesi’s,
with a little lisp, but with lots of
character. The scene between Boccanegra
and Fiesco (CD1 track 4) is a piece
of brilliant music-drama with two good
actors. Boccanegra’s Del mar sul
lido, towards the end of the track
is excellently sung. In Plebe! Patrizi!
(CD1 track 12), when Boccanegra addresses
the people, Silveri hasn’t Gobbi’s ability
to colour the voice, to give the character
a face with vocal means alone. This
is nevertheless strong, confident singing
of a kind you can’t always take for
granted today. And he has gleaming high
notes where Gobbi even as early as 1958
loses quality. In the death scene he
is greatly involved and is truly moving.
Indeed Paolo Silveri’s assumption of
this role is very satisfying. Mario
Petri, known also as a good buffo, has
a sonorous and clean bass voice. He
too seems to be a very good actor. He
can shade the voice in fine nuances
and has steady black low notes. Il
lacerato spirito (CD1 track 3),
one of Verdi’s finest bass arias, displays
his capacity admirably. The smaller
roles are also well taken. For me this
was a very pleasant surprise and it
actually gave me new insights into this
opera.
There is a cut in act
1, scenes eight and nine, which is of
little importance. The libretto in the
booklet even prints the missing lines,
so we can get to know what is left out
– if we understand Italian, that is,
since there is no translation. A summary
of the plot is given, in both Italian
and English, and as usual Warner Fonit
reprint the original artwork from the
LP box.
Hi-fi buffs need not
bother to buy this issue, but readers
interested in some of these singers,
or good singing in general, should give
it a chance. As I said, you need some
tolerance towards the sound quality.
Also if it is this particular opera
you are after, then you also need one
of the more modern versions: Abbado
or Gavazzeni.
Göran Forsling
Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of RAI, Rome/Francesco
Molinari-Pradelli 
