Simon Boccanegra (Overture Opera Guides) 1847495435, 9781847495433

Table of contents :
Contents
List of Illustrations
A Historical Perspective
An Introduction to the 1881 Score
Verdi and His Singers
A Performance and Reception History
Thematic Guide
Simon Boccanegra
PROLOGUE
ACT ONE
ACT TWO
ACT THREE
Scenes from the 1857 Libretto
Select Discography
Simon Boccanegra on DVD, a Selection
Select Bibliography
Verdi Websites
Note on the Contributors
Appendix
Acknowledgements

Citation preview

overture opera guides

in association with

We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with Overture Publishing on this series of opera guides and to build on the work ENO did over twenty years ago on the Calder Opera Guide Series. As well as reworking and updating existing titles, Overture and ENO have commissioned new titles for the series and all of the guides will be published to coincide with repertoire being staged by the company at the London Coliseum. This volume is the first of the Overture Opera Guides to be devoted to Verdi, and is issued to mark a major new production at ENO of Simon Boccanegra, staged by the acclaimed Russian director Dmitri Tcherniakov and conducted by ENO Music Director Edward Gardner. The stellar cast includes Bruno Caproni in the title role, soprano Rena Harms as Amelia, Brindley Sherratt as Fiesco and Peter Auty as Gabriele. This new staging marks the start a new coproduction relationship with the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich. We hope that these guides will prove an invaluable resource now and for years to come, and that by delving deeper into the history of an opera, the poetry of the libretto and the nuances of the score, readers’ understanding and appreciation of the opera and the art form in general will be enhanced. John Berry Artistic Director, ENO June 2011

The publisher John Calder began the Opera Guides series under the editorship of the late Nicholas John in association with English National Opera in 1980. It ran until 1994 and eventually included forty-eight titles, covering fifty-eight operas. The books in the series were intended to be companions to the works that make up the core of the operatic repertory. They contained articles, illustrations, musical examples and a complete libretto and singing translation of each opera in the series, as well as bibliographies and discographies. The aim of the present relaunched series is to make available again the guides already published in a redesigned format with new illustrations, some new articles, updated reference sections and a literal translation of the libretto that will enable the reader to get closer to the meaning of the original. New guides of operas not already covered will be published alongside the redesigned ones from the old series. Gary Kahn Series Editor

Sponsors of the Overture Opera Guides for the 2010/11 Season at ENO

Eric Adler John and Gilly Baker Frank and Lorna Dunphy Ian and Catherine Ferguson Judith Mayhew Jonas and Christopher Jonas Ralph Wells

Simon Boccanegra Giuseppe Verdi

Overture Opera Guides Series Editor Gary Kahn Editorial Consultant Philip Reed Head of Publications, ENO

OP OVERTURE

overture opera guides

in association with

Overture Publishing an imprint of oneworld classics

London House 243-253 Lower Mortlake Road Richmond Surrey TW9 2LL United Kingdom The articles by Rodolfo Celletti, James Hepokoski and Desmond ShaweTaylor first published by John Calder (Publishers) Ltd in 1985 Article by George Hall first published in this volume © the author This Simon Boccanegra Opera Guide first published by Overture Publishing, an imprint of Oneworld Classics Ltd, 2011 © Oneworld Classics Ltd, 2011 All rights reserved English translation of the 1881 text © Lionel Salter English translation of the 1857 text © Emanuela Guastella Appendix © Oxford University Press, reprinted with kind permission Printed in United Kingdom by TJ International, Padstow, Cornwall isbn:

978-1-84749-543-3

All the materials in this volume are reprinted with permission or presumed to be in the public domain. Every effort has been made to ascertain and acknowledge their copyright status, but should there have been any unwitting oversight on our part, we would be happy to rectify the error in subsequent printings. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not be resold, lent, hired out or otherwise circulated without the express prior consent of the publisher.

Contents List of Illustrations

8

A Historical Perspective Rodolfo Celletti

9

An Introduction to the 1881 Score James Hepokoski

15

Verdi and His Singers: The vocal character of the two versions of Simon Boccanegra in relation to the original casts Desmond Shawe-Taylor

31

A Performance and Reception History George Hall

43

Thematic Guide

55

Simon Boccanegra, Libretto

61

Prologue63 Act One

87

Act Two

133

Act Three

159

Scenes from the 1857 Libretto

177

Select Discography

209

Simon Boccanegra on DVD – A Selection 

211

Select Bibliography

213

Verdi Websites

215

Note on the Contributors

217

Appendix: From Giulio Ricordi’s  Simon Boccanegra Production Manual

219

Acknowledgements225

List of Illustrations 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27.

Giuseppe Verdi in 1874 Francesco Maria Piave Giulio Ricordi Verdi with Arrigo Boito Verdi’s study at Sant’Agata Cartoon of Verdi and cast of 1881 production (Lebrecht Music & Arts) Set design for 1857 production Scenery sketch for the 1881 production Victor Maurel (Lebrecht Music & Arts) Francesco Tamagno (Lebrecht Music & Arts) Édouard De Reszke (Lebrecht Music & Arts) Anna D’Ageri (Lebrecht Music & Arts) Renata Tebaldi and Tito Gobbi (Nancy Sorensen) Giangiacomo Guelfi and Nicolai Ghiaurov (Erio Piccagliani/La Scala) Gianni Raimondi and Mirella Freni (Erio Piccagliani/La Scala) Boris Christoff and Ermanno Mauro (Donald Southern) Kiri Te Kanawa and Sherrill Milnes (Zoë Dominic) Nicolai Ghiaurov and Veriano Luchetti (Anne Kirchbach) Renato Bruson and Mara Zampieri (Harri Irmler) David Alden’s production at ENO (Clive Barda/ENO Archive)) Johannes Schaaf’s production at the Stuttgart Staatsoper (Hermann and Clärchen Baus) Tim Albery’s production at the Bayerische Staatsoper (Wilfried Hösl) David Pountney’s production for Welsh National Opera (Clive Barda/ArenaPal) Peter Hall’s production at the Glyndebourne Festival (Mike Hoban) Elijah Moshinsky’s production at the Royal Opera House (Clive Barda/ArenaPal) Ian Judge’s production at the Royal Opera House (Clive Barda/ArenaPal) Giancarlo del Monaco’s production at the Metropolitan Opera (Metropolitan Opera Archives) 28. Claus Guth’s production at the Hamburg Staatsoper (Klaus Lefebvre) 29. Plácido Domingo as the dying Simon Boccanegra (Clive Barda/ArenaPal)

8

1. Giuseppe Verdi in 1874, between the two versions of Simon Boccanegra.

2. Francesco Maria Piave, librettist of the 1857 version (top left). 3. Giulio Ricordi, Verdi’s publisher (top right). 4. Arrigo Boito, librettist of the revised 1881 version, with Verdi (below).

5. Verdi’s study at Sant’Agata in Emilia-Romagna, where he lived and worked from 1849 (above). 6. Cartoon by Melchiorre Delfico of Verdi rehearsing the soprano Francesca Fioretti and tenor Gaetano Fraschini for the 1858 performances in Naples (below).

7. Set design by Giuseppe and Pietro Bertoja for the 1857 production in Venice (above). 8. Scenery sketch by Gerolamo Magnani for the 1881 production in Milan (below).

The cast of the revised 1881 version: 9. Victor Maurel (Simon Boccanegra) (top left). 10. Francesco Tamagno (Gabriele Adorno) (top right). 11. Édouard De Reszke (Jacopo Fiesco) (bottom left). 12. Anna D’Ageri (Amelia) (bottom right).

13. Renata Tebaldi as Amelia and Tito Gobbi as Simon Boccanegra at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1960 (above). 14. Giangiacomo Guelfi as Simon Boccanegra and Nicolai Ghiaurov as Jacopo Fiesco at La Scala, Milan in 1964 (below).

15. Giorgio Strehler’s production, designed by Ezio Frigerio, at La Scala, Milan, in 1971. Gianni Raimondi as Gabriele Adorno and Mirella Freni as Amelia.

16. Boris Christoff as Jacopo Fiesco and Ermanno Mauro as Gabriele Adorno at the Royal Opera House in 1973 (above). 17. Kiri Te Kanawa as Amelia and Sherrill Milnes as Simon Boccanegra at the Royal Opera House in 1980 (below).

18. Veriano Luchetti as Gabriele Adorno and Nicolai Ghiaurov as Jacopo Fiesco at the Bayerische Staatsoper in 1981 (above). 19. Renato Bruson as Simon Boccanegra and Mara Zampieri as Amelia at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin in 1984 (below).

20. David Alden’s production, designed by David Fielding, at ENO in 1987. Janice Cairns as Amelia.

21. Johannes Schaaf’s production, designed by Alexander Lintl, at the Stuttgart Staatsoper in 1995 (above). 22. Tim Albery’s production, designed by Hildegard Bechtler, at the Bayerische Staatsoper in 1995. Franz Grundheber as Simon Boccanegra (below).

23. David Pountney’s production, set designed by Ralph Koltai and costumes by Sue Willmington, for Welsh National Opera in 1997. Nuccia Focile as Amelia and, above her, the body of her dead mother (above). 24. Peter Hall’s production, designed by John Gunther, at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1998 and first seen in 1986. Elena Prokina as Amelia (below).

In 1997, productions of both versions of the opera were staged at the Royal Opera House in the same season: 25. Elijah Moshinsky’s production of the 1881 version, designed by Michael Yeargan and first seen in 1991. Alexandru Agache in the centre as Simon Boccanegra (above). 26. Ian Judge’s production of the 1857 version, designed by John Gunter. Plácido Domingo as Gabriele Adorno, Kallen Esperian as Amelia and Sergei Leiferkus as Simon Boccanegra (below).

27. Giancarlo del Monaco’s production, designed by Michael Scott, at the Metropolitan Opera in 1995. Plácido Domingo as Gabriele Adorno, Vladimir Chernov as Simon Boccanegra and Kiri Te Kanawa as Amelia. (above). 28. Claus Guth’s production, designed by Christian Schmidt, at the Hamburg Staatsoper in 2006 (below).

29. In 2010, Plácido Domingo sang the role of Simon Boccanegra in Berlin, Milan, London and New York. Here, in the final scene, with Marina Poplavskaya as Amelia, Ferruccio Furlanetto as Jacopo Fiesco and Joseph Calleja as Gabriele Adorno at the Royal Opera House.

A Historical Perspective Rodolfo Celletti For an opera such as Simon Boccanegra, knowledge of the historical background is important. The first version was composed in 1856 and performed in Venice the following year. The unification of Italy had begun but was not yet complete. Verdi’s strong views on Italian nationalism are well known and yet the most significant political episode in the opera – the Council Chamber scene in Act One – was not incorporated into it until 1881, that is, not until the second version, on which Verdi collaborated with Arrigo Boito. To understand why this was, it is useful to look at the historical events which form the basis of the libretto. In 1856 Piave took the story of Simon Boccanegra from the Spanish Romantic drama of the same name by Antonio García Gutiérrez (who was also the author of the play on which Il trovatore had been based four years earlier). But Simon Boccanegra was, of course, a real historical figure in mid-fourteenth-century Genoa. Genoa was at that time the bitter rival of Venice for maritime power, and their trading interests clashed especially in the eastern Mediterranean, where the lands of the Byzantine Empire offered enormous potential. The city suffered, as much as other Italian city states, from endemic civil feuds. There was an underlying rivalry between the semi-feudal nobility, the Doria, Spinola, Fieschi and Grimaldi families, and the non-noble townspeople. In the previous century, with growing sea power and wealth, the townspeople had developed a form of self-government to counterbalance the autocratic unruliness of the landed nobility. The ‘Popolo’ elected a council, but the question of who elected the 9

Simon Boccanegra

leaders of the council (the two Captains and the Podestà) was disputed between the Popolo and the nobles. Simon Boccanegra’s uncle, Guglielmo, was the most famous of the Captains of the People in 1257–62. The nobles quarrelled among themselves, and their rivalries were polarized by the pretensions of Pope and Emperor to the overlordship of Italy. Thus the Doria and Spinola were allied to the Imperial Ghibelline cause, and the Fieschi and Grimaldi supported the Papal Guelfs. Within the city each family cultivated, by networks of intermarriage and obligation, an area where its power was paramount and, in the regular outbreaks of feuding, these areas could be sealed off and effectively used as strongholds. The Popolo were united principally by their desire for stability, although they were just as liable to split into factions as the nobles. After the death of the Emperor Henry VII in 1313, the nobles profited from the unsettled political situation in Italy to sell their services as professional soldiers. The consequent increase in their power weakened the commune of Genoa with years of savage feuding. Finally, in 1339, the Popolo turned upon the nobles and demanded a leader of their own election; they chose Simon Boccanegra, not as one of two Captains, or as Podestà, but as their first Doge, with the powers, however circumscribed, of a sole leader. He appears to have been reluctant to assume the responsibility, and his first five years in office were marked by wise and sober government. (He was not, as the libretto claims, a pirate; that was his brother, Egidio.) While he reduced the most violent of the nobility to obedience, he saved the life of one of the Grimaldi who was his personal enemy and curbed the extremes of the factions of the Popolo. During his reign the naval importance of the city was maintained with victories against the Turks, the Tartars and the Moors. Nevertheless, the hostility of the combined feudal nobility eventually reasserted itself; he was also opposed by some of the rich merchant class who saw his policies run counter to their own aggrandizement. In 1344 he renounced the Dogeship and withdrew into private life. The office of Doge, however, was retained. During the next ten years the Genoese campaigns against the Venetians, the Greeks and the Turks drained the city’s resources. In 1351 Petrarch appealed to Andrea Dandolo, Doge of Venice, invoking 10

a historical perspective

Italian fraternity between the two maritime republics. In the following year he addressed a similar letter to the Genoese. But to no effect. A pyrrhic victory for the Genoese in the Bosporus was followed by defeat by the Venetian fleet at Lojera (off Sardinia) in 1353. Genoa appealed to Venice’s most powerful enemy on land, Archbishop Giovanni Visconti, lord of Milan and most of Lombardy, for protection. The Venetians refused the overtures of peace made by the Archbishop, and actually presented by Petrarch as ambassador, for fear this would merely give him time to consolidate his power against them in Genoa. In 1354 a Genoese victory over the Venetians at Porto Lungho avenged Lojera. Two years later the Genoese threw off the overlordship of Milan and recalled Boccanegra from retirement in Pisa. During this second term of office he again excited the opposition of both the feudal nobility and the wealthier citizens. Several attempts were made on his life and in 1363 he was fatally poisoned. So much is history. It is also possible to look further ahead and say that Gabriele Adorno – that is the tenor role in the opera – was elected Doge on the death of Simon. He belonged to one of the wealthy Popolani families, among whom the Dogeship was from then on contested, and was not, as Piave’s libretto suggests, a noble. He showed himself weak and irresolute in office and retired in 1370. Let us now return to 1881 and the final version of the opera. This consists of a prologue followed by three acts, instead of the four acts of the first version. The most important innovation was the introduction of the Council Chamber scene which transforms Boccanegra from an anxious father figure and a merely disappointed Doge into a prophet of Italian unity. It was Verdi’s idea in the first place. In 1880 he made up his mind to revise the opera after its virtual disaster twenty-three years earlier. He decided to leave the first and last acts unchanged and to make only a few adjustments to Act Three. It was Act Two that was the stumbling block – it needed more variety and more vitality. In the same year Verdi wrote along these lines to Giulio Ricordi, adding: ‘I recall two remarkable letters from Petrarch, one written to Doge Boccanegra [Verdi’s memory is at fault here as Boccanegra was not Doge in 1352, when Petrarch wrote to the people of Genoa], the other to the Doge of Venice, telling them that they were about to 11

Simon Boccanegra

throw themselves into fratricidal conflict, that both were sons of the same mother, Italy, etc., etc.’ (the ‘etc., etc.’ are Verdi’s own). Verdi continues: ‘This feeling for an Italian motherland is quite remarkable for that time! [‘Sublime questo sentimento d’una patria italiana in quell’epoca!’] This is all political, not dramatic, but a skilful hand could certainly dramatize the situation. For example, Boccanegra, with this idea in mind, would follow the poet’s advice – convene the Senate or a private Council meeting and reveal the letter, with its amazing concept, to them. Everyone horrified – haranguing – anger – final accusation against the Doge of treachery, etc., etc. The wrangling interrupted by the abduction of Amelia…’ Up to this point, these were Verdi’s own thoughts and this plot – or rather, this treatment of history – was exactly the basis upon which Boito built the Council Chamber scene in which Boccanegra, in the name of Petrarch, advocates a reconciliation with Venice. Yet there is another factor in the new characterization of the Doge. When Verdi wrote to Giulio Ricordi about Petrarch’s letters, Italy had been unified for almost twenty years. It was rather a ‘rickety table’ – to use an expression with which Verdi and Boito liked to describe Simon Boccanegra when revising it – but at least it existed. And the ideals of the Risorgimento were still fresh in the memory, so much so in fact that it seemed miraculous that they had at last been translated into reality. It is easy to imagine how men of culture and patriotism such as Verdi and Boito would react to a historical episode when Italian unity was envisaged and brotherhood among Italians was invoked: it would be an inspiration to recreate it, to make it live again for their compatriots. Such an episode was the ephemeral but epic career of Cola di Rienzo, Tribune of the Roman People for seven months in 1347. In Boito’s libretto Boccanegra is portrayed with just those characteristics of the Roman Tribune which might be described as messianic, when he terrifies Paolo into condemning the man who abducted Amelia. In 1343 this low-born notary had journeyed to Avignon from Rome and won the support of Pope Clement VI and of Petrarch with his flamboyant rhetoric and burning denunciation of the quarrels of the Roman nobles which then impoverished the Holy City. When Cola staged his coup 12

a historical perspective

d’état in 1347, Petrarch wrote lengthy letters praising his defence of the ancient liberties of Rome. Indeed Cola immediately and effect­ ively suppressed the over-mighty Roman nobility, and summoned a parliament to enact new laws to deal with poverty and civil disorder, the city administration and the machinery of justice. In a matter of weeks he established an unaccustomed peace and order in the city and its environs. His guiding principle, declared to all, was that the liberation of Rome from the feudal nobility was also the liberation of Italy. Word quickly spread throughout Italy of these exploits and of what he had achieved in such a short time. He kept the people informed of every step he took, always urging on them the importance of brotherhood between the Italian cities. His envoys visited every region, taking with them a small silver staff as proof of their identity. The people they met on the way were so moved that they knelt before them, asking if they might kiss the token which symbolized for them the idea of unity among the Italians. Cola did all he could to promote his vision of a national parliament. Ambassadors converged on Rome from all the Italian cities and, as Petrarch wrote, ‘Italy rose up as though spellbound and the glory and dread of the name of Rome reached to the far corners of the world.’ He fell victim, however, to the proud and divisive sense of independence among the city states of Italy, as well as to his own mad excesses; in Rome he lost the favour of the Popolo, and even the Orsini and the Colonna set aside their ancient quarrels in order to oust him. Petrarch, who had set out from Avignon to offer his advice to the Tribune, had reached Genoa by November 1347 when he received news of Cola’s immoderate behaviour: ‘Shall the world then see you fall from the leader of the good to become the partner of the vile? […] I cannot alter matters, but I can flee them.’ A determined uprising of the nobles on 15th December was hardly resisted by Cola’s militia, and he fled to Naples. After several years in secure but comfortable prisons in Germany and Avignon, he returned as a puppet of the Papacy to rule Rome a second time in 1353. He once again lost the support of the people and was killed by the mob. 13

Simon Boccanegra

The Council Chamber scene in the 1881 Simon Boccanegra captures the upsurge of Italian national feeling which Petrarch encouraged with such spectacular, if short-lived, success in Cola di Rienzo’s Rome. It captures the highly charged political atmosphere of fourteenth-century Italy and recalls the passionate arguments of Dante’s De monarchia (1313), pleading for a strong leader to deliver Italy from present turmoil, and the apocalyptic visions of Joachim of Fiore, predicting that the Antichrist’s reign would precede the Last Judgement. For men of the Risorgimento like Verdi and Boito, it was an epoch which naturally carried extraordinary poetic resonance. Simon’s climactic peroration (‘And I cry “Peace!” / I cry “Love!”’) is not an expression of the historical figure’s love for his city but of the visions of Cola di Rienzo, of Dante and of Petrarch, of Verdi and Boito themselves – indeed of all those who had dreamt over the centuries of unity, peace and brotherhood among the people of Italy. The whole of Boccanegra’s peroration is in fact worth attention: even as he appeals for peace the opposing factions of the Genoese come to blows. For there is one further point to be noticed: when Verdi composed Les Vêpres siciliennes in 1855 he had written his last opera with a patriotic risorgimentale theme. All the subsequent works (the first version of Simon Boccanegra, Un ballo in maschera, La forza del destino, Don Carlos, Aida) carry the marks of the new Italian situation: the unification of Italy about to be completed (Boccanegra in 1857) or actually completed. Verdi, as poet of the Risorgimento, as the musical voice of an oppressed people, stood to one side and was silent: his job was done. But the Council Chamber scene of the 1881 Simon Boccanegra rekindled his old political passion. And so Simon Boccanegra is important because, for the last time, Verdi, one of the central characters in the new movement for unity within the young state, returned to the theme that he had so passionately supported in earlier years. He was then sixty-eight years old, and perhaps disillusioned and embittered by the events following unification, but his voice still comes across firm and fervent, as he recalls the old ideals of the heroic years of the Risorgimento.

14

An Introduction to the 1881 Score James Hepokoski Although undeniably a masterpiece, Simon Boccanegra presents us with complexities that, while by no means insurmountable, are not easily resolved. As audiences soon discover, the libretto is strained and problematic – a patchwork text produced by no fewer than three hands. And, as an opera that Verdi revised long after its first performance, Simon Boccanegra is a conflation of two separate musical visions, not a single, spontaneous unity. The original version of the opera was first performed (unsuccessfully) at La Fenice in Venice on 12th March 1857; the rather thorough overhauling of the work, whose extraordinary new music foreshadows the later Otello, was first given at La Scala on 24th March 1881. We are thus invited to absorb a stylistically chequered work, which juxtaposes two successful, but sharply contrasting styles. The danger here, of course, is that of fragmentation, the division of the opera into separate, mutually exclusive moments. Verdi wrote the 1857 Simon Boccanegra during a period of emerging experimentation, stylistic growth and expansion. On the one hand it resounded with clear echoes of his earlier style. The basic musical conventions of the Risorgimento (separate numbers with breaks for applause, multi-movement arias and duets with repetitive codas, cadenzas and repeated cabalettas, static concertato ensembles, and so on) were indeed present, if usually modified – sometimes in ways that seemed to mystify his contemporaries; the musical discourse was characteristically terse, angular and muscular – often a succession of short, sharp blows or rising groundswells; the accompaniment 15

Simon Boccanegra

patterns, although more ingenious, often still relied on pulsating, repetitive rhythms to generate their energy; and much of the orchestration perpetuated the simpler Italian tradition. On the other hand, the original Simon Boccanegra contained a number of ‘progressive’ (but not revolutionary) elements. Some of these are traceable to Verdi’s growing knowledge of French grand opera (his last complete work had been Les Vêpres siciliennes for Paris in 1855). Others stemmed from his increasing willingness to subordinate lyricism as an end in itself to the interests of general mood, dramatic flow and character depiction and to heighten the dramatically active, nonformal sections – everything, that is, that surrounds the more static, lyrical pieces. But to many of Verdi’s contemporaries this suggested a dangerous tilt away from Italianate melodic supremacy. The most famous remarks are those of the Florentine Abramo Basevi in 1859: With this opera Verdi attempted a fourth manner, almost approaching Germanic music through its affected use of new forms to be adapted to the dramatic expression, its greater importance given to the recitatives, and its lesser concern about melody. I would almost say, to judge at least from the Prologue, that he wanted to follow (albeit at a distance) the footsteps of the famous Wagner, the subverter of present-day music. It is well known that Wagner would like to make music as determined a language as possible, almost the shadow of the poetry. This ‘non-lyrical’ impression, particularly when coupled with the complicated libretto, made Simon Boccanegra a ‘difficult’ work for 1857, and the opera failed to find a secure place in the repertoire. In the ensuing fourteen years it was mounted only some three dozen times, mostly in provincial theatres, with varying success. Its last production in a major theatre was at the Teatro Regio in Turin in 1864. Verdi’s revision of the music in January and February 1881 (a kind of pre-Otello project) went hand in hand with a simultaneous revision of the text by the gifted Arrigo Boito – a revision that went so far as to produce an entirely new scene: Act One, Scene Two, the 16

an introduction to the 1881 score

Council Chamber scene. (Julian Budden provides the details of this collaboration in his masterly study, The Operas of Verdi.)1 Clearly, the most dated music had to be excised or rewritten, the original breaks smoothed over with transitions and the like, but Verdi’s alterations went far beyond the minimum requirements. Nearly every piece was affected in some way – some entire sections recomposed, elsewhere a bass line altered here, a vocal phrase there, and so on. The principal passages of 1881 music (many of which were based on thematic and harmonic material from the corresponding passages of the 1857 version) are indicated in the discussion further below. Verdi’s revision of Simon Boccanegra merits attention as the threshold of his late style: the gateway that leads to a rich outpouring (including the 1882–83 Don Carlos revisions, Otello, Falstaff and the Quattro pezzi sacri) that remains one of the glories of nineteenth-century music. By 1881 he had deepened nearly every aspect of his music in intensity, motivic coherence and variety of colour. His task in revising Simon Boccanegra amounted to recasting a work conceived in one aesthetic value system (the ‘old world’ of the Risorgimento) according to the demands of another, more ‘modern’ one. Particularly noticeable is the increased sophistication and activity of the orchestra. In Verdi’s late style the orchestra is frequently the bearer of developing motivic fragments that bind the larger sections of the work together. These motifs are continually being reshaped and varied; the composer seems to have come to consider literal repetition an aesthetic error, and scarcely any 1881 idea appears the same way twice. The reigning principle is that of spontaneous ‘organic’ growth. A hard-won mastery of this new organic style (one progressively defined in Un ballo in maschera, La forza del destino, Don Carlos, Aida and the Messa da Requiem) permitted Verdi to conceive music more flexibly and broadly, over longer stretches of time, than in 1857. This was precisely the remedy to bring to the earlier Simon Boccanegra. Moreover, by 1881 Verdi had also constructed a new lyricism, one that rounded the sharp edges of his earlier, Italian melodic style with the supple contours and ripe 1 Julian Budden, The Operas of Verdi, 3 vols. (London: Cassell, 1973–81; rev. edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992)

17

Simon Boccanegra

sensuousness of France, all underscored with a luscious chiaroscuro chromatic harmony. The practical effect of all of this in the revised opera is dramatic and palpable. At critical moments the characters break out of their 1857 limitations and into a more freely flowing, rapturous lyricism. This is the invasion of one world by another, the sudden breach of a ritualistic, honour-bound society with surges of ‘natural feeling’. It is true that the danger for any apprehension of Simon Boccanegra as an aesthetic whole is that the richer, later music can diminish the effect of the earlier. But the very disparity of musical styles can function dramatically, particularly when one accepts the 1857 style as normative and prevailing, the ground for more ‘spontaneous’ excursions into heightened individual feeling. Prologue The opening scenes of Simon Boccanegra begin in Verdi’s purest 1881 manner and gradually drift back to his 1857 style. His mature present, that is, is called upon to conjure up the past, a procedure not unlike that of storytelling. Accordingly, the opera is launched in a relaxed, rocking, ‘once-upon-a-time’ vein – unique in Verdi’s mature operas (and a radical change from the original tense 1857 Prelude). The first scene, with Pietro and Paolo’s plotting and Simon’s ultimate acceptance of the offer to become Doge, centres around the opening theme [1],2 which, bobbing gently on sea-deep string harmonies, also suggests something of the marine atmosphere that will pervade so much of this opera. As is typical of late Verdi, this central theme is continually developed (‘organically’) and varied, moves into dialogue with interruptions and interpolations (some recalling 1857 music), and is fragmented and reshaped according to the demands of the drama. With Simon’s exit and Paolo’s withdrawal to one side, a new section of nocturnal music begins [2]. Hushed, delicately scored and conspiratorial (and foreshadowing the conclusion of Act Three, Scene One of Falstaff), these night whispers are shaped in much the same way as was the preceding section: an initial orchestral statement 2 Numbers in square brackets refer to the Thematic Guide on pp. 55–59 [Ed.].

18

an introduction to the 1881 score

(for the entrance of Pietro and the sailors and workers) is repeated – and varied, developed and interrupted – with dialogue. The chorus’s surprise at Paolo’s abrupt proposal of ‘Simone Boccanegra’ as the next Doge is one of the celebrated features of the 1881 score: a sudden, forte shout, ‘Simone!’, gives way to a stunned, quizzical ‘Il Corsaro!’, sung sotto voce. With Paolo’s E-minor racconto [3], the Prologue settles largely into 1857 music (although the original was up a step, in F sharp minor). The squarer melodic cut, the pungently reedy woodwind doubling, and the propulsive drive of Verdi’s earlier style are instantly perceptible. Still, for 1857, this was an advanced piece, both harmonically and structurally. It is built from two long musical strophes, the second freely varying the first (notice, for instance, its more active accompaniment). Each strophe begins with Paolo alone and warms up into a choral response. The second strophe’s response, however, includes dialogue between Paolo and the chorus – an embedding of more ongoing drama into a ‘formal’ strophe. Verdi lightly touched up the piece’s orchestration and accompaniment in 1881, and one passage is new: the dolcissimo conclusion of the first strophe, ‘Passando ogni pietoso’ (‘every pitying passer-by vainly seeks’) [4] – a sudden, warm glow, again with marinesco flavouring. The orchestral ‘exitmusic’, with its eerily gleaming high open fifths, is an expansion of the original conclusion. Despite its smooth accompaniment and evocative use of offstage chorus, Fiesco’s bass romanza, ‘Il lacerato spirito’ (‘The tormented spirit’) [5], is the most traditional piece of the 1857 Prologue. Its antique feel (a reworking of the minor-major formula, with the usual formal repeated coda lines) and deep severity of tone perfectly capture Fiesco’s ‘old-world’ nobility. This is, after all, the first appearance of a proud Guelf, whose very life upholds ritualized patterns of honour and social status. An even more intensified ceremonial quality may be felt in the double-groundswell orchestral postlude (1857) as the mourners leave Fiesco’s palace. The bitter Simon-Fiesco duet that follows, however, violates the conventional expectations of 1857 and is a landmark of Verdi’s 19

Simon Boccanegra

maturing style. The traditional duet pattern found so often in his earlier operas passed through five phases: an introductory scena (recitative-setting of unrhymed verse); a tempo d’attacco (dramatically active dialogue, typically without repeated lines and often set in parlante style, that is, with the principal melody in the orchestra – specifically, this movement begins with the onset of rhymed, regular verse and almost always signifies a sudden gain in dramatically shaped, directional energy); a break in the forward motion for the lyrical adagio (formal, static stanzas with coda – adagio here is a formal term, not a description of the tempo actually indicated); a tempo di mezzo (active connecting movement); and a brilliant, rousing cabaletta (like the adagio, formal stanzas, but characteristically featuring a large-scale musical and textual repetition before the coda proper). But this baritone-bass duet (small portions of which were retouched in 1881) becomes more structurally ambiguous as it proceeds. There are no truly ‘static’ sections in the traditional sense, and the text lacks formal cabaletta stanzas. The aesthetic point is clear: the rapid current of the dramatic action is reluctant to relax into lyrical pools. The tempo d’attacco blazes forth (with a few 1881 retouchings) at Fiesco’s ‘Qual cieco fato’ (‘What blind fate’) [6], but the argument burns on much longer than anticipated in juxtaposed, contrasting musical sections. Fiesco’s meno mosso appeal for his grandchild, ‘Se concedermi vorrai’ (‘If you will give up to me’), may at first seem to begin a formal adagio, but this impression soon vanishes. The actual adagio, or adagio substitute, is Simon’s racconto ‘Del mar sul lido fra gente ostile / crescea nell’ombra quella gentile’ (‘On the shore of a foreign land / the sweet child grew up hidden’) [7], with its salt-water tang (notice the ‘sea-breeze’ woodwind doubling). The decisive structural and dramatic point here is its breaking of the continuity of present time through a flashback into the past, not so much its internal structure: ultimately, the piece dissolves into dialogue. The whole duet up to the point of Fiesco’s low-F ‘Addio’ (‘Farewell’) is constructed of instantaneous music that parallels the unfolding drama. It is one of the most advanced structures of the original Simon Boccanegra – and one that drew especially heavy fire from Basevi, who considered the duet to have ended with the 20

an introduction to the 1881 score

racconto. The Prologue concludes as in 1857: a dramatic ‘scena’ (actually functioning as an appended tempo di mezzo and thus in some senses continuing the duet), as Simon discovers the dead Maria, leads to the final chorus (a dramatic substitute for a conventional cabaletta). Here the people unknowingly mock Simon’s grief and goad Fiesco to even further wrath by hailing the corsair as Doge to the accompaniment of vigorous (and, for Verdi, purposely trivial) Risorgimento ‘public music’ – very much in the old style. Act One Scene One. A new, closed-curtain prelude (based on some of the 1857 material) presents us with one of the jewels of the 1881 score: an evocative tone picture of dawn by the sea, graced with airy violin trills and tremolos, broad viola waves and gentle woodwind bubbling. With the rise of the curtain onto the coastal garden of the Grimaldi palace – now twenty-five years later than the Prologue – Amelia begins her cavatina [8]. The French-influenced, ABA1 melody is mostly from 1857, but the sophisticated accompaniment – more bubbling woodwind – is new. True to his 1881 principle of nonrepetition, Verdi provides a different accompaniment for the musical reprise (‘O altero ostel’) (‘O proud abode’). And entirely new to 1881 is Amelia’s exquisite conclusion, ‘S’inalba il ciel’ (‘Dawn breaks in the sky’), which rises up to a delicious, dolcissimo high B flat and rounds off with the woodwind bubbling and string tremolos of the prelude: everything heard thus far has been, as Verdi put it, ‘a unified piece’. In 1857 Amelia followed Gabriele’s Manrico-like offstage song [9] with a solo cabaletta, but in the revision we plunge at once (after some skilful 1881 stitching, ‘Ei vien!’ (‘He is coming’) etc.) into the first of the three duets of Act One, Scene One, the ‘Duetto Amelia e Gabriele’, mostly from 1857. The two lovers pass through the scena – Amelia reveals her knowledge of Gabriele’s rebellious plotting with the other Guelfs – directly into the adagio, ‘Vieni a mirar la cerual / Marina tremolante’ (‘Come and look at the sea, azure and shimmering’). (In sharp contrast with the duet in the prologue Verdi chooses not to include a tempo d’attacco. Here the dramatic point, 21

Simon Boccanegra

one supposes, is either that it has been ‘hushed away’ by Gabriele or that Amelia’s concern pushes her prematurely into her formal plea.) Amelia begins her melody by floating a perfectly still D natural (of which Basevi did not approve) on top of soft, wave-like string lappings and woodwind trills, then, more purposefully, expands into the broad, coquettishly tempting refrain [10], which Gabriele also shares at the end of his 1881-enriched risposta, or formal response. A rapid, recitative-like tempo di mezzo in which Pietro announces the Doge’s imminent arrival (and we learn that Paolo hopes to marry Amelia) obliges the lovers to bring the duet to a hasty close with a shortened cabaletta [11], also retouched in 1881. The Gabriele-Fiesco duet that follows underwent a heavier revision. Fiesco, our severe noble, begins his scena account of Amelia’s humble origins in smooth 1881 recitative (‘Alto mistero’ (‘A deep mystery’)). His more prosaic telling of the tale (‘No – la figlia dei Grimaldi’ (‘No… the daughter of the Grimaldi family’)) remains in an aged and bone-weary 1857 arioso. But when Gabriele re-declares his love for Amelia (‘L’orfana adoro!’ (‘I love this orphan!’)) the music swims wondrously into the wide-eyed richness of 1881. It is one of the most moving moments of the revised opera: the stiff, deep bass Fiesco thaws in the warmth of more spontaneous, quasi-religious emotion. Even more striking than the C major paternal blessing [12] (structurally considered, the onset of a compact adagio) is Gabriele’s juxtaposed E minor risposta [13], wafting ecstatically heavenward and climaxing with a ‘sacred’ pseudo-modal lift in the accompaniment as he reaches the peak of his vocal line (on the word ‘voce’). The ensuing duet between Amelia and Simon likewise mixes the 1857 and 1881 styles, but is more traditionally shaped: it is the first duet to pass through all of the five conventional duet phases. In the scena, beginning immediately after the offstage trumpet fanfares announce the Doge’s arrival, Fiesco and Gabriele withdraw, savouring the Guelf rebellion to come (the 1857 version had contained a much longer giuramento, or oath, between the two), Paolo gloats briefly over Amelia, and Simon pardons Amelia’s exiled brothers – all to an 1881 recitative with carefully nuanced orchestral interjections. The tempo d’attacco [14] begins in Verdi’s typically middle-period 22

an introduction to the 1881 score

‘conversation style’, a relaxed parlante (whose rhythms, at least, recall the much slower, more grotesque Rigoletto-Sparafucile encounter), gaining in intensity and finally growing into the 1881 style for her dramatic revelation to Simon that she is not really a Grimaldi by birth. The largely 1857 adagio [15] resonates with a timbre and mood heard often in Verdi: a woodwind introduction – here an oboe, but in 1857 the scoring may have called for a clarinet – leads the way into a melancholy soprano solo. This adagio, once again, is not the traditional static reflection. It is another flexible, prolonged racconto, moving and changing along with the dramatic information that it contains – a bold procedure for 1857. It grows out of its initial G minor into G major (‘Mi baciò’ (‘She kissed me’) – the expected musical reprise is replaced by an entirely new melody), elicits a brief, hopeful risposta from Simon, who now suspects that she might be his long-lost daughter, and surges into rapturous 1881 lyricism in the coda, as Amelia and Simon sing simultaneously [16]. The tempo di mezzo brings back the rhythms of the ‘conversational’ parlante heard earlier [14] – the climactic ‘Stringi al sen Maria che t’ama’ (‘Clasp to your heart Maria, who loves you’) is from 1881, but most of the succeeding orchestral outburst was present in the early score – and leads to the cabaletta [17], an 1857 piece thoroughly reworked in 1881 (or, better, an 1881 composition with a good memory for its 1857 predecessor). Particularly invigorating is Amelia’s risposta [18], impulsively springing forth and arching broadly over a wide range in the Aida style: in the 1857 score she had dutifully repeated her father’s melody (even retaining its throbbing-pulse accompaniment). At the close of the coda father and daughter embrace to a beatified restatement of [17] (notice the ‘celestial’ harp – musica angelica). After such a lyrically effusive duet, Simon’s denial of Amelia to Paolo and Paolo’s and Pietro’s terse parlante plans to kidnap Amelia, although dramatically necessary, inevitably seem a let-down. Scene Two. The 1881 Council Chamber scene, the high point of the revised score, is a highly complex and fluid structure. It may be grasped, however, by realizing that it rests on three central musical blocks: the insurrection, Amelia’s recounting of her abduction and 23

Simon Boccanegra

the climactic appeal for peace. Each block is preceded by introductory or transition material. After a rancorous and confrontational orchestral introduction that gets nowhere [19], giving us some idea of the deep-seated conflicts within the group that Simon is addressing, three swelling string chords – the depth of Verdi’s new mastery of harmonic colour is felt at once – lead to Simon’s initial requests for peace (one a message from Petrarch). Agitated refusals within the chamber give way to the muffled sounds of a rebellion outside. The insurrection motif [20a], strangely reminiscent of the second movement of Beethoven’s Quartet Op. 130, dominates the first large block of music – quintessentially late Verdi. The four-measure motif appears no fewer than eleven times in crescendo – a mounting whirlwind of varied settings through differing keys and textures, interrupted briefly by scattered episodic material. The music rushes towards two climactic statements: the C minor quasi-reprise ‘Armi! saccheggio!’ (‘Arms! Booty!’) [20b] and (following a wonderful ‘spatial’ effect as the trumpet call in the orchestra passes to the offstage trumpet and the immediate threat to the Doge is quelled) the E-minor fortissimo orchestral explosion (‘Ecco le plebi!’ (‘Here comes the mob!’)) as Gabriele, Fiesco and the crowd burst into the chamber. Freer dramatic transitional material for the Simon-Gabriele confrontation and the sudden appearance of Amelia leads to the second, smaller block: her narrative of her abduction [21], the first portion of which is based on 1857 material. Its rounded, but freely organic construction, however, is distinctly in the later style: notice, for instance, the radically varied reprise, in the strings only, beginning two measures before her words ‘Confuso di tema’ (‘Shaken by fear’). Another strife-torn transition (Amelia having claimed knowledge of who originated the plot, the rival factions begin again to accuse each other) brings us to the third block of the scene. This pezzo concertato begins with Simon’s desperate appeals to end the dissension [22]: it is Verdi’s political credo as well, underpinned by an ardent faith in a unified, healed patria. Every line is carefully and rhetorically nuanced ‘Patrizi!’ (‘Patricians!’) is set higher than ‘Plebe!’ (‘Plebeians!’); the unifying concept, ‘Popolo’ (‘People’), highest of all, etc., and the whole grows from stern reprimands to warm evocations of the soil 24

an introduction to the 1881 score

itself (‘Piango su voi!’ (‘I weep for you’)) and climaxes in the most memorable lines of this scene, perhaps of the opera: a quotation from Petrarch [23], who by this point in the scene has been elevated to a quasi-mystical symbol of Italian unity. The concertato proper that follows is one of Verdi’s most effective and is built around Fiesco’s factional laments, Amelia’s sweepingly beautiful personal appeal to Fiesco [24], and Simon’s more generalized repetition of the Petrarch quotation [23]. After the close of the concertato (i.e., in a tempo di mezzo without stretta) all eyes turn penetratingly onto the treacherous Paolo, and the music (beginning with a tutta forza, almost ‘Brucknerian’ orchestral unison) resounds with Iago-like ferocity in its twisted shape and nasty trilling [25]. A dry bass-clarinet solo, a writhing minor-key compression of [24], underscores the Doge’s suspicions. As Simon forces Paolo to lay a curse upon his own head [26], the bass clarinet, almost inaudibly, begins to groan repeatedly downwards in three descending half-steps. In the next act Paolo will turn this motif into a symbol of deadly revenge. Act Two After a few 1857 words between Pietro and Paolo, the former leaves and the latter gives vent to a venomous dramatic scena from 1881; one of Boito’s and Verdi’s many deepenings of the character of Paolo in the revised score. Like Rigoletto’s much earlier ‘Pari siamo’ (‘We are alike’) (except now in cleverly rhyming poetry), this monologue consists of enhanced recitative delivered as dramatically as possible. In this instance its binding forces are fearful echoes of the preceding scene [26]: Simon’s curse, rising thrice like searing apparitions in the trumpets and trombones, and the groaning, three-note chromatic descent of Paolo’s self-curse, which now becomes the Poison motif of his assassination plot. Another largely 1857 ‘conversational’ parlante, this time with Paolo attempting unsuccessfully to tempt the ever-proud Fiesco into murdering the Doge in his sleep [27] – a boldly separate musical structure (like that of the Rigoletto-Sparafucile dialogue), unattached in any conventional way to a larger, more predictable unit – brings us 25

Simon Boccanegra

to a similarly early scena ed aria for Gabriele. Here again the 1857 Verdi has defied the expected conventions, this time by reversing the positions of the two formal portions of the standard aria structure. And the innovation, as always, matches and articulates the flow of the drama. Incited by Paolo’s insinuations that Amelia may have already fallen victim to the Doge’s love, Gabriele (of course unaware that the two are father and daughter) assumes the worst and plunges into plans for revenge: a premature, truncated cabaletta howl [28], raging over furiously rushing, chromatic strings (which had already threatened to erupt in the scena). Only after Gabriele’s thoughts turn fearfully to the possibility of Amelia’s deflowering does he soften into a more conventional adagio [29] with coda and cadenza (the most old-fashioned solo of the opera). Suddenly Amelia herself appears and a new formal duet is launched directly with the tempo d’attacco (emotions are running too high for a mere scena), which proceeds breathlessly with Gabriele’s tormented fears and accusations and concludes with Amelia’s pronouncement (rewritten in 1881) that the reason for her love of Simon must temporarily remain a secret. The adagio that follows [30], Gabriele (over an anguished-heartbeat string accompaniment) begging her to reveal the secret and Amelia trying gently to reassure him, is pure 1857 Verdi: two three-phrase melodies, each climaxing on their third phrase. The coda, as their voices join, suddenly ‘elevates’ for eight measures in the luscious 1881 style. As was the case with their earlier duet in Act One, this duet is cut short by the prospect of Simon’s imminent arrival. Accordingly, the tempo di mezzo and cabaletta substitute beginning with Amelia’s ‘Nell’ora stessa teco avrò morte… / Se non ti move di me pietà’ (‘If pity for me does not move you… / I will die with you at the same moment’), both products of 1857, are again telescoped and quickly disposed of: the still-distraught Gabriele vows to assassinate the Doge – his presumed rival – and Amelia hides her furious lover on the balcony before her father arrives. Everything that follows in Act Two is conceived as a single unit: a finale in 1857 style, retouched here and there in 1881. The culmination of the extraordinarily lengthy scena is Simon’s soliloquy and inadvertent self-poisoning: the insertion of a semi-formal monologue 26

an introduction to the 1881 score

into a section of heightened recitative. Verdi revised its opening in 1881 (the bass-pizzicato music immediately surrounding the Doge’s sipping of the poison), but with the onset of the light staccato strings the music is from 1857. Simon nods asleep – the staccato string figures yawn further apart – and begins to dream, deeply troubled by what he has just learnt: that his daughter (symbolized by the recall of the theme of their recognition cabaletta [17] in the woodwind) loves Gabriele, his enemy and fierce partisan of the rebellious Guelfs. After Gabriele emerges to murder the sleeping Doge, the music follows a more predictable course. With Amelia’s sudden interposition the tempo d’attacco shoots forth [31], tumbling forward to orchestral hammer blows as Simon calls upon Gabriele to strike with his dagger, and concluding in a march-like passage for Simon that contains – finally – the stunning revelation that he is Amelia’s father. The terzetto that follows (the static, formal movement, heavily retouched in 1881) is one of Verdi’s most beautiful short ensembles [32]. Surely no finer example of close psychological depiction can be found than that in Gabriele’s opening solo exposition. It consists of three contrasting phrases. In the first he begs Amelia’s pardon in E flat minor. He then turns nobly to the Doge in an open, hand-on-heart passage in the relative G flat major, admits his assassination plot, and shifts to an anguished third phrase (intensified in 1881) [33] whose end (‘il ciglio a te non oso alzar’) (‘I do not dare to raise my eyes to you’) perfectly traces the course of his shame-filled eyes. The 1857 offstage Guelf chorus that concludes the act [34] functions as the stretta (rapid conclusion) of the ensemble. In its muscular, clipped vigour it is a typical Risorgimento product (like the concluding chorus in the Prologue). In 1881 Verdi did, however, add women’s voices and rewrite the onstage switching of Gabriele’s loyalties to the forces of the Doge. Act Three Another closed-curtain prelude (from 1881: notice the racing bass line) brings back the vigorous Guelf rebellion music with which the last act ended [34]. From behind the curtain cries of victory for 27

Simon Boccanegra

the Doge overturn the nobles’ musical forces, and, by curtain rise, the initial A flat minor has brightened into A flat major. Inside the Doge’s palace the captain of Simon’s crossbowmen releases Fiesco, restores his sword, and informs him of the Guelf defeat. At this point Fiesco sees the traitor Paolo being led to execution. Paolo’s 1881 music here, parallel to his dramatic scena at the opening of Act Two (and as Iago-like as ever), is organized around a forte, serpentine motif [35] heard at its beginning and end, varied restatements of the Poison motif [26] as he reveals to Fiesco that Boccanegra is doomed, and his free, jealous remarks (including his admission that it was he who abducted Amelia) as he hears Amelia’s and Gabriele’s serene offstage (1857) wedding chorus. After Paolo is led off, Fiesco, although Simon’s bitter enemy, shudders (with tremolo strings) at the horror of the poisoning and withdraws into the shadows to await the stricken Doge, who is still unaware of his fate. The Doge’s captain enters once again, to a ceremonial circular 1881 phrase for horns, and proclaims that the lights of the city are to be extinguished in honour of the dead (all of this to music that seems to recall the trial scene in Aida). At the moment that Simon enters, the strings begin to slide upwards in parallel chromatics [36], and we rejoin the 1857 version. It is an extraordinary sound in the early score: the whole scene is a kind of radicalizing of the Doge’s poisoning and dream scene in Act Two. In the later score the chromatics take on even more significance as inversions of the Poison motif [26]. The feverish Doge is momentarily refreshed by the sea breeze [37] – again, airy string tremolos, a cool, trilling flute and wave-rocked triple-time melodies, all so important to the musical atmosphere of the opera. Fiesco suddenly emerges (‘Era meglio per te!’ (‘It would have been better for you!’)) to challenge his foe with fierce resolution, underscored by his initial insistence on a single pitch supported by rocksolid, but oscillating ‘modal’ harmonies. (The Council Chamber scene notwithstanding, Simon is not supposed to have seen – or at least recognized – Fiesco since the Prologue.) In several respects recalling the structure of the radical Simon-Fiesco duet in the Prologue, this second baritone-bass confrontation, largely from 1857, again 28

an introduction to the 1881 score

expands the tempo d’attacco into a series of sectionalized contrasts. (As before, the dramatic point is to postpone the adagio in favour of prolonged dramatic action: Verdi’s resolute experimentalism in the later 1850s can scarcely be better exemplified than in these two duets.) Fiesco never sounds graver than at the beginning of the tempo d’attacco [38], an ‘old-world’ proclamation of Boccanegra’s doom. Even the musical shape of Fiesco’s eight lines, evoking the standard lyric-form pattern AA1BC – but with all four phrases obsessively retaining the same dotted-rhythm figure until the final triplet-spilling concluding cadence – adds to the severity. After this initial pro­ clamatory stanza the music breaks up into dialogue over thumping death-rhythms in the orchestra, as the lights of the piazza outside begin to be extinguished and Simon gradually recognizes Fiesco. In the forward-rushing ‘Come fantasima’ (‘Like a phantom’), still another section of the prolonged tempo d’attacco, Simon finally reveals to Fiesco (in a momentary shift to broadly arched 1881 music) that Amelia is his granddaughter. This leads to a tearful reconciliation, the duet’s adagio. Fiesco’s initially ‘rhetorical’ exposition [39] (compare the similarly E-flat minor openings of [22] and [32]) gives way not to a risposta in standard shape but to similarly rhetorical groundswells: the whole procedure seems to be more that of an ensemble reduced to two voices than that of a traditional duet. Towards the end of the adagio (the textual repetition of ‘Vien, ch’io stringa al petto’ (Come let me clasp you to my breast’)) we hear a new, rocking ‘reconciliation theme’, as the two link their voices together (Verdi had used this theme near the close of the 1857 Prelude). In the concluding section (the structure of the text suggests that it is a tempo di mezzo fused onto the end of the adagio as a kind of kinetic coda pendant) Fiesco tells Simon that he is poisoned. As the ‘reconciliation theme’ swells up again in voice and orchestra, Simon asks to bless Amelia/ Maria, whom he hears approaching with Gabriele and a respectful crowd of Genoese. The final quartet, which the generally displeased Basevi judged in 1859 to be ‘the most beautiful piece of the opera’, begins with an initial section largely in recitative that passes quickly from happiness (Amelia’s learning that Fiesco is her grandfather and that Fiesco and 29

Simon Boccanegra

Simon, through their joint relationship to her, have been reconciled) to sorrow (Simon reveals his imminent death). The more formal portion of the ensemble begins with Simon’s nearly motionless blessing of his daughter and Gabriele [40] (notice the resemblance to the Preludes to Acts One and Three of La traviata as he mentions his ‘martyrdom’). Rhythmic momentum is regained as Amelia and Gabriele respond sympathetically with parallel, similarly arched melodies. Fiesco, true to character, declares in a funereal four-measure shift to 1881 music that all earthly happiness is a deception. Finally, the Doge, gasping for breath, leads them all into a repeated, swelling concertato – much of it generously enriched in 1881. Instead of resolving at the end, the quartet-with-chorus crashes up against a forte diminished seventh chord – a traditional musical symbol of disaster. The opera concludes with eight sombre lines from 1857 (the aim, similar, for instance, to that in the final five lines of Il trovatore, was to close the opera with a brief dramatic action: a ‘tempo di mezzo’, but here with freer, scena-like poetry). Just before his death Simon chooses Gabriele to succeed him as Doge. Fiesco proclaims this to the people in the piazza outside. The last sounds – unusually quiet for Verdi, especially in 1857 – include ritual bell strokes (compare the bells at the end of the Prologue) and the kneeling chorus gently praying for the dead Boccanegra in the dotted rhythms of a funeral march.

30

Verdi and His Singers The vocal character of the two versions of Simon Boccanegra in relation to the original casts Desmond Shawe-Taylor Among the innumerable comments on singers made by Verdi in the course of his long life, biographers and critics usually seize on those in which he speaks disparagingly of the species: expressing, for instance, his annoyance at the careless use of the word ‘creator’ to describe the first performer of a role. ‘No,’ he said in a well-known letter to Giulio Ricordi (11th April 1871), ‘I want only one creator, and am satisfied if what is written is simply and correctly executed; the trouble is that this is never done. I often read in newspapers about “effects unimagined by the composer”, but for my part I have never come across any of these.’ Conversely, biographers incline to overlook the equally numerous occasions when Verdi showed how much a particular singer had impressed or moved him. When the name of Gemma Bellincioni came up in 1886 as a possible Desdemona, the composer supported Boito’s adverse view (23rd January 1886) against the enthusiasm of Ricordi; but a decade later we find him praising Bellincioni’s famous Violetta, and sending her his photograph with the message ‘To you who could give new life to the old sinner’. Thirty years before, there had been a pleasant and revealing little episode in his dealings with the famous baritone, Antonio Cotogni. Cotogni was suggested for the role of Rodrigo in the first Italian production of Don Carlo at Bologna in 1867; and Mariani, the conductor, brought him along to sing to Verdi. As a matter of fact, Verdi had already heard Cotogni 31

Simon Boccanegra

four years earlier in a Madrid performance of La forza del destino which he described at the time as very poor except for the soprano and the tenor; but he may have forgotten this and, if so, Cotogni, now thirty-six years old and approaching the peak of his career, might well have been too tactful to remind him. Verdi accompanied the baritone at the piano in what Mariani calls Rodrigo’s aria di sortita, ‘Carlo ch’è sol il nostro amore’ (‘Carlos, who is loved by us alone’), and then himself sang with Cotogni the Friendship Duet – ‘with tenderness and exquisite finesse’, says Mariani of the composer’s vocal style. ‘At the end of the piece,’ Mariani continues, ‘the composer’s face was lined with tears; the singer could count on a successful outcome.’ You might say, perhaps, that Verdi was weeping at the beauty of his own singing – or, more probably, of his own music; but the implication of Mariani’s words is that he was moved by Cotogni’s voice and art. Cotogni himself had no doubt about the matter, if we may believe a slightly different account of the episode which the notoriously unreliable Gino Monaldi ascribed to the singer in his Famous Singers of the Nineteenth Century. The baritone is reported as having said that it was his singing of Rodrigo’s death scene, ‘Io morrò, ma lieto in core’ (‘I shall die, but light of heart’), that had so affected Verdi, and moreover as attributing to the emotionally moved composer the uncharacteristic comment: ‘You sing it, not as I wrote it – but no matter; by all means sing it like that since it goes splendidly so… indeed, even better.’ We know also of Verdi’s admiration for the Spanish tenor Julián Gayarre, whom he probably heard in 1876, and for the Italian heroic tenor Gaetano Fraschini, whom he chose for four of his own operas between 1845 and 1859 (Alzira, Il corsaro, La battaglia di Legnano and Un ballo in maschera) and had in mind for one or two more; but the extravagant enthusiasm he is supposed to have expressed, as late as 1898, to the young Italian tenor, Alessandro Bonci, derives from a letter which is an evident forgery.1 1 A supposed letter of Verdi to Alessandro Bonci of 21st May 1898, quoted in Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, Voci parallele (Milan: Ricordi, 1955), p. 132, and elsewhere, expresses ‘al bravo tenore Bonci’ (then aged twenty-eight) the

32

verdi and his singers

The outstanding instance of his susceptibility to the singer’s art is to be seen in his attitude to Patti – just the type of prima donna assoluta whose international renown and high-handed ways (she had a clause in her later contracts absolving her from attendance at all rehearsals of familiar operas) might have been expected to arouse in him some degree of hostility. In a letter (6th October 1877) to Ricordi, however, he praises her extravagantly, describing her as ‘a born artist in the full meaning of the word’, and berating the complacent Milanese, Ricordi included, for having failed to appreciate her worth ten years before. From her performance in Rigoletto he singles out for his rapturous approval not her brilliant florid singing nor her pure cantabile, but the ‘sublime effect’ of her utterance of a single (usually unnoticed) phrase of recitative in the last act: Gilda’s simple reply to her father’s question near the beginning of the act: ‘And you still love him?’, ‘I love him’ (‘Io l’amo’). On 27th December 1877, in a letter to Arrivabene, Verdi compares Patti very favourably with Malibran and goes on to describe her in still more rapturous terms: ‘marvellous voice, very pure vocal style; a wonderful actress with a charm and naturalness such as no one else has!’ Historically, Verdi comes midway between an eighteenth-century composer like Mozart, who thought it natural to write roles and arias that should display to their best advantage whichever singers had been engaged, and the typical modern composer who, as a general rule, writes without any particular singer in mind. He was fond eighty-four-year-old composer’s ‘most welcome surprise’ (‘graditissima sorpresa’), after hearing the tenor’s famous touches of inserted laughter in the quintet ‘E scherzo od è follia’ (Un ballo in maschera). The wholly spurious nature of this letter has been clearly shown by Arnaldo Marchetti in ‘La famosa lettera di Verdi a Bonci’, Rassegna Musicale Curci, no. 3 (July 1973), pp. 23–24. I owe this reference to the kindness of Dr Giorgio Gualerzi; and to Andrew Porter a further, and seemingly decisive, reference to a letter of Verdi to Escudier of 11th March 1865, in which the composer dismisses the notion that an operatic Lady Macbeth might employ (as the actress Ristori did) a death rattle in the throat, adding: ‘In music, that must and cannot be done; just as one shouldn’t cough in the last act of La traviata; or laugh in the ‘scherzo od è follia’ of Ballo in Maschera’ (quoted in Verdi’s Macbeth: A Sourcebook, edited by David Rosen and Andrew Porter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), p. 110).

33

Simon Boccanegra

of enunciating as a maxim ‘either operas for singers, or singers for operas’ (‘o le opere per cantanti, o i cantanti per l’opere’).2 He seldom wrote parts specifically for this or that singer, but he always took careful note of the singers available, and avoided subjects that would give them roles beyond their powers. Thus, one of several reasons for his continually postponing the composition of King Lear was that there was often no baritone or bass in the proposed company who could safely be entrusted with so crucial and demanding a role as Lear, or else no soprano worthy of Cordelia.3 In the earlier part of his career, there are several instances of his writing fresh arias to suit a change of cast; and among the modifications that he made to La traviata for its second Venetian production, a year after the premiere at La Fenice, some were affected by the new singers – especially by the baritone, Filippo Coletti, who did not possess the exceptionally high range of Felice Varesi, the original Germont. Like all composers, in fact, Verdi usually had to be content with what was to hand; and then, as now, standards were very variable. * * * Of the two original casts for Simon Boccanegra, that of the Venice premiere of 1857 means less to us today than that of the Milan revision of 1881, for various reasons; partly because of the greater lapse of time, partly because the 1857 singers were perhaps not quite so famous as their Milanese successors of 1881, partly because two members of the later cast went on to achieve what may fairly be 2 Franco Abbiati, Giuseppe Verdi (Milan: Ricordi, 1959), vol. 4, p. 132. Cf. Carlo Gatti, Verdi (Milan: Mondadori, 1951), vol. 2, p. 79: ‘ed opere adatte agli artisti ed artisti addati alle opere’, where Verdi seems to demand, underlining his phrase, not one or the other of these two conditions, but both at once. 3 The chequered story of Verdi’s many returns to the King Lear project, and of his reasons or excuses for its postponement and eventual abandonment, is conveniently summarized in Vincent Godefroy, The Dramatic Genius of Verdi, vol. 2. (London: St Martin’s Press, 1977), pp. 327–348, and in Charles Osborne, The Complete Operas of Verdi, (London: Victor Gollancz, 1969), pp. 77–82.

34

verdi and his singers

called immortality by becoming, six years later, the first Otello and Iago, and partly because, later still, three of the four principals made primitive gramophone records. Let us first glance, however, at the Venetian principals of 1857, several of whom were to repeat their roles elsewhere in Italy and abroad. The Boccanegra was Leone Giraldoni (1824–97), a Frenchman in spite of his name, and father of the Eugenio Giraldoni who was to be Puccini’s first Scarpia in 1900. Giraldoni père was by common consent a fine and unusually cultivated singer; Verdi admired him enough to entrust him, two years later, with the role of Renato in the first performance of Un ballo in maschera – although on that occasion, as at the time of Simon Boccanegra, his chronic tendency to ill health was to prove troublesome. When about to repeat his Boccanegra in Rome in December 1857, Giraldoni wrote to Verdi asking for further guidance, to which Verdi rather testily (though not unreasonably) replied that, even if he had time, it would be pointless for him to write a long letter of instruction to a man who had sung the opera twice under his own direction, and very well too. He merely begged the baritone to avoid those rallentandi beloved by most singers but damaging to the music, adding for good measure that he desired all his singers, of either sex, to sing, and not to shout or declaim or scream. ‘If in my music there are not many florid passages, there is no need on that account to tear your hair and rage like madmen.’ As for Giraldoni himself, let him watch his health, and all will go well. Verdi had reason to add this last injunction, for at the premiere both Giraldoni and Carlo Negrini (1826–65), the tenor, had been ill and sang very badly, so we are told. Nothing much beyond vague general approval is heard of the bass, Giuseppe Echeverria (a Spaniard, one would suppose); but the soprano, Luigia Bendazzi (1833–1901), prompted a good deal of comment of one sort and another. Although she repeated her Amelia several times in various theatres and countries, we get the impression that she wasn’t really suited to the character; she was what used to be called a donna di forza, and a famous Lady Macbeth, so that Verdi seems to have disregarded his own axiom in giving her the role of a modest girl. She was renowned 35

Simon Boccanegra

for the power and fine quality of her voice, rather than for delicacy or purity of style. There survives an interesting letter written by the soprano, Marietta (or Maria) Piccolomini – a very celebrated Violetta of her day – to Giraldoni, undated but clearly written some time before the premiere, envying him and Negrini their good fortune in Verdi’s having, as she puts it, ‘written for them’; she herself longs to be the first to sing some Verdi opera (an ambition she was never to achieve, although Verdi wanted her particularly for the Cordelia of his unwritten King Lear and actually postponed its composition yet again, this time for Naples in 1856, because he couldn’t get her).4 Piccolomini assumes that the composer, having Bendazzi for his prima donna, had written for her a part ‘tutta di forza’, which wouldn’t have suited her own talents at all. The sound and thorough critic, Filippo Filippi, who in the course of his career reviewed the Boccanegra premieres of both 1857 and 1881, thought that Bendazzi and Negrini were alike too violent and too declamatory for their music, adding that ‘Verdi had not sacrificed or falsified the subject of his work by adapting it to the capacities of its first interpreters’. By the time Bendazzi sang Amelia at La Scala in 1859, her faults seem to have grown to the point at which they began to exasperate the audience, according to a long notice in the Gazzetta Musicale di Milano (unsigned, but possibly by Lambertini). Even in Venice two years before, says the writer, he had felt that she would ruin the great natural beauty of her voice by ‘the exorbitance of her screams and the power of her attacks’. Evidently, something of the kind had by now happened, so that on the first night at La Scala she had quite a hostile reception; in consequence, she became so alarmed that on the second and third nights she went to the other extreme, not daring to sing out even where required, and sometimes merely ‘buzzing like a fly’. 4 Verdi to Vincenzo Torelli, 11th November 1856, in Copialettere, 196–97. He was also prepared to accept, for Cordelia, Virginia Boccabadati or Maria Spezia: ‘all three have weak voices but great talent, soul [anima] and stage sense. All are excellent in La traviata’. For the Fool he insists on the contralto Giuseppina Brambilla. In a further letter to Torelli (7th December 1856, in Copialettere, p. 197) he absolutely declines Penco for Cordelia, adding that he would not have singers foisted upon him, ‘not even if Malibran were to return from the grave’.

36

verdi and his singers

Curiously enough, the Amelia of the revised Boccanegra, Anna d’Angeri (1853–1907), a soprano of Austrian origin, aroused similar anxieties on the part of Verdi and Ricordi. The latter said that she would be vocally ideal: it was all a question of how far Verdi would get with her in matters of interpretation and personality – where, he remarked, ‘you can sometimes work miracles’. Verdi thought that D’Angeri, precisely because of the power of her voice – and, he added, ‘of her person’ – would not be right for the part of a modest girl, quiet and frail, a kind of young nun; he doubted whether D’Angeri herself would feel quite happy with the part. For a while, Patti was considered, but Ricordi thought that here there were a good many ‘cons’ to balance the obvious ‘pros’: among them, Nicolini (Patti’s second husband, a tenor), the enormous fees she would demand, and the fact that by now she was transposing all her pieces down, and could risk high notes only in florid passages, not in dramatic or accented phrases (this, be it observed, when the great soprano was no more than thirty-seven!). D’Angeri, at all events, was chosen, and she seems to have done pretty well; she was highly praised by Filippi, among others. Of course, the extensive changes in the role of Amelia – for instance, the omission of the Act One cabaletta – were the consequence of the composer’s artistic development rather than of any difference in the new soprano’s vocal powers as compared with those of her predecessor. Only two months before the Boccanegra revival, and under the same conductor, Franco Faccio, there had been a highly successful Ernani at La Scala, with the identical four principals: D’Angeri (who according to Faccio ‘had a real ovation after her cavatina’), Francesco Tamagno (1850–1905), Victor Maurel (1848–1923) and Édouard de Reszke (1855–1917). Faccio praises them all. Maurel alone, he says, was not at his best on the first night because of a vocal indisposition, but on the second night he was splendid. Tamagno was ‘excellent, with his exceptional voice and very powerful effects’, while the sole complaint that could possibly be made of De Reszke would be that he sang too beautifully! These outstandingly successful Ernani performances served as a kind of run-in for the revised Boccanegra. 37

Simon Boccanegra

Tamagno’s voice is still a living sound to many modern musiclovers from the thrilling records that he made of excerpts from Otello, Guglielmo Tell and other operas. Besides the power and beauty of his tone, he excelled in the clarity of his articulation: Tullio Serafin used to recall how Tito Ricordi would complain that on Tamagno nights the firm did badly in the sale of librettos, since no one bothered to buy one.5 Tamagno was apparently the only one of the 1881 principals about whom there had been no casting doubts at any time. There was a moment when Verdi contemplated transposing Gabriele’s aria up by a semitone because of Tamagno’s brilliant upper register; but the composer was delighted when, after all, the change proved unnecessary. Joseph Kerman has plausibly suggested that in the Terzetto of Act Two the climactic high B flats on the words ‘Dammi la morte’ (‘Let me die’), which were not in the first version, were inserted with Tamagno in mind. We may add that Gabriele’s very striking phrase in the new finale to Act One, ‘Pel cielo! / Uom possente tu se’!’ (literally ‘By Heaven! / You are a man of power!’), with its sudden leap to a high B flat sustained for more than a bar’s length, is likewise ideally suited to Tamagno’s trumpet tones. It has also been observed that in every act of the revised Boccanegra Gabriele’s part rises to a higher note than in the first version: in Acts One and Three a semitone higher, in Act Two a whole tone higher. Here then, it may be, we have one of the relatively rare instances of Verdi’s adapting one of his mature scores to suit a particular artist. Strange as it may now seem, he was for some time dubious about the participation of both Maurel and De Reszke. For the role of Fiesco, he said, he wanted ‘a voice of iron… a deep voice, effective down to the low F, with something in it of the inexorable, the prophetic, the sepulchral: all qualities not to be found in the somewhat hollow and baritonal voice of De Reszke’. His doubts about De Reszke’s suitability to a role of this kind would have been shared by 5 Tullio Serafin, ‘Tre Cantanti’ in Discoteca, anno II, no. 10 (15th July 1961). Emma Eames, who often sang the role of Desdemona to Tamagno’s Otello, once replied to a question of my own about the quality of his voice, ‘Short of having a silver trumpet in his throat, he could not have sung more wonderfully.’

38

verdi and his singers

George Bernard Shaw, who took the view (borne out by photographs) that the singer’s stage personality was more jovial than formidable, and teased this supposedly spine-chilling Mephistopheles for ‘his faith in the diabolic mockery of a smile that would make the most timid child climb straight up on his knee and demand to be shown how a watch opens when blown on’. Shaw considered that, as Marcel in Les Huguenots, De Reszke was a mere makeshift in the absence of a true basso profondo.6 Nevertheless, De Reszke’s repertory was that of a genuine bass. Besides Marcel, it included Gounod’s Mephistopheles and Friar Lawrence, Mozart’s Leporello, Beethoven’s Rocco, Rossini’s Don Basilio, Verdi’s Ramfis, and Wagner’s Daland, Hagen, King Henry and King Mark; only Hans Sachs (not one of his most admired parts) took him outside the regular bass regions. In Les Huguenots Marcel has three low Fs in the course of his big Act Three duet with Valentine (which Shaw found the best part of De Reszke’s performance), and two of these can be heard – though too faintly to be of much value as evidence – in the fragments recorded on one of the ‘Mapleson cylinders’ from a live performance at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1903, with Johanna Gadski and Édouard De Reszke in the cast. Whether justified or not, Verdi’s worries about De Reszke’s range were eventually allayed, and the bass scored a great success. Filippi tells us that he sang ‘Il lacerato spirito’ divinely, and was so much applauded that (as can still too often happen) the lovely orchestral postlude to the aria was obscured; he had to give an encore of the piece. Needless to say, by far the most important role is that of Simon Boccanegra himself. For him, said Verdi, we need ‘a passionate spirit, most ardent, proud, with a calm and dignified exterior (something difficult to achieve)… We shan’t find him, I know it well; but at least something approaching that.’ At first he thought Maurel too young for the part. ‘Voice, talent, sentiment – as much as you could ask, but never the calm composure and as it were theatrical authority indispensable for the part of Simon.’ It is a role, the composer said, as tiring as Rigoletto, but a thousand times more difficult. In short, 6 George Bernard Shaw, Music in London 1890–94, Standard Edition (London: Constable, 1932), vol.1, pp. 172, 199.

39

Simon Boccanegra

he wanted a paragon of all the virtues, both vocal and dramatic – and perhaps he found one after all. Maurel, says Filippi, was ‘perfect, I dare to say sublime, both vocally and dramatically… the voice free and vigorous’; and he scored a very great success. Yet most commentators have agreed that his virtues were not predominantly vocal: he was no Battistini (a successful later Boccanegra at La Scala), no Cotogni, no Pandolfini. By the time he made his gramophone records (1903–07), the voice itself was in sad decline, but much of his interpretative skill and charm can still be felt, especially in his singing of Iago’s ‘Era la notte’ (‘It was night’) and in his famous ‘Quand’ ero paggio’ (‘When I was a page’) from Falstaff. At one point, Faccio tells us, Maurel had expressed fears regarding the high tessitura of Simon Boccanegra; but these problematical passages, the conductor tells Verdi, ‘are precisely those which you have modified’, so that Maurel is now reassured. The implication of Faccio’s words is that Verdi had ‘adjusted the part’ to suit Maurel, but the changes, when examined, look more like simple compositional improvements which happened to lie more easily for the baritone’s voice. Maurel was unusually intelligent; he passed for an intellectual among singers, who are not always a highly intellectual race. He painted a little, he was an architect and a keen swordsman, and (dreadful thought) is said to have counted surgery among his hobbies; later on, he took up another lethal hobby, that of lecturing. According to the slightly equivocal phrase of George Bernard Shaw, who speaks with authority on such a point, ‘the role of lecturer was never better acted since lecturing began’.7 During the 1880s and 1890s he published some half-dozen books or pamphlets, one of which was translated into German by the formidable Lilli Lehmann, while another was declared by Shaw to have been written in a style as clear as Tyndall’s.8 As Boccanegra, at all events, he surprised the doubting Verdi by his excellence,9 and must have particularly delighted him by making a huge success of the new finale to the first act. 7 Shaw, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 99. 8 Shaw, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 138. 9 Verdi to G. Piroli, 5th April 1881, in Abbiati, op. cit., vol. 4, 155: ‘Maurel is a Simon Boccanegra whose equal I shall never see.’

40

verdi and his singers

Filippi’s review repeats the story that already at one of the rehearsals the composer had exclaimed ‘This is my Iago’ – to which the critic appends the comment: ‘If Verdi said so, he had excellent reason.’ And the story seems to be true that at another rehearsal the composer so far forgot himself as to say to his baritone something that was rather out of keeping with his usual cautious attitude towards singers, namely: ‘If God gives me strength, I’ll write Iago for you!’ When we recall that Tamagno was to be his first Otello, and Maurel also his first Falstaff, we can see at La Scala a performing tradition of unusual consistency stretching from the Ernani revival of early 1881, through the Simon Boccanegra revision and the revised Don Carlo of 1884 with Tamagno in the title role, followed by the Pantaleoni/Tamagno/Maurel/Navarrini Aida of late 1886,10 to the twin final summits of Verdi’s long and glorious career, the Otello of 1887 and the Falstaff of 1893.

10 Romilda Pantaleoni and Francesco Navarrini were the first interpreters of Desdemona and Lodovico in Otello.

41

A Performance and Reception History George Hall Original Version (1857) Verdi’s twenty-first opera, Simon Boccanegra, had its premiere at the Teatro La Fenice, Venice, on 12th March 1857. As resident stage manager of the theatre, the opera’s librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, directed the staging, which was designed by Giuseppe Bertoja (sets) and Davide Ascoli (costumes), and conducted by Carlo Ercole Bosoni. The first night was not a success, with evidence of coldness and even hostility from the audience.1 On 15th March, a review in the Gazzetta Privilegiata da Venezia commented: ‘The music of Boccanegra is of the kind that does not make its effect immediately. It is very elaborate, written with the most exquisite craftsmanship, and needs to be studied in all its details. From this it came about that on the first night it was not fully understood and led to some hasty judgements – judgements so bitter and hostile in the form in which they were expressed […] as to appear singular and strange, to say the least. This first, unfavourable impression can be to some extent explained by the character of the music, which is perhaps too heavy and severe, and by that mournful colour that dominated the score, especially the prologue.’ Three days later, Marco Marcelliano Marcello’s report on the first night appeared in L’Arte: ‘I have just left the Teatro La Fenice and the harmonies of Simon Boccanegra are still ringing in my ears. 1 For full information on the original cast see Desmond Shawe-Taylor’s article on pp. 31–41.

43

Simon Boccanegra

Can I give you a detailed account of this work? No, my dear readers, because the music of Boccanegra is so severe in general that it is impossible to judge it after a single hearing, and in fact the public left the theatre without having made up their minds.’ Piave reported that the second night went well, and that by the fifth performance the boxes were all fully sold, the audience adding ‘solemn applause’ after some numbers. In all seven performances were given – a dispiriting total for a composer of Verdi’s eminence. In various letters written later in the month he revealed his disappointment at the work’s reception. ‘I’ve had a fiasco in Venice almost as great as that of La traviata,’ he told his friend Countess Maffei on 29th March. ‘I thought I’d done something passable, but it seems I was mistaken.’ Nevertheless, the work was taken up in other Italian theatres, though with decidedly mixed results. When it was staged in June in the inaugural season of the Teatro Municipale in Reggio Emilia, Verdi made several changes to the score and himself directed the work. The season was going badly, with a production of Norma hissed off the stage; yet the first night of Boccanegra was a triumph, with rounds of applause. The second performance was less successful, while the third (in Verdi’s words) went ‘extremely well’. After that he left. He later complained that the management had subsequently permitted a singer to interpolate an aria from Lucia di Lammermoor and had made major cuts, including the tenor aria and trio in Act Two. Over the next few years there were a handful of other productions around the peninsula: in Rome (1857), Palermo and Genoa (1859), Bologna (1861) and Turin (1864). The production in Florence (23rd October 1857) was a disaster. In Naples (28th November 1858) Verdi once again made minor changes to the score and again directed; the result was another success. At La Scala, Milan (24th January 1859), twelve performances were given, initially to a tumultuously negative reception, mainly directed at the baritone, Sebastiano Ronconi. Verdi wrote about ‘a Boccanegra without a Boccanegra’, going on to describe the piece as ‘not inferior to many of my more fortunate operas, but perhaps requiring a more finished execution, and an audience that wants to listen’. Outside Italy the opera reached Oporto 44

a performance and reception history

(1858), Malta (1859), Madrid and Lisbon (1861), Buenos Aires and Montevideo (1862), Corfu (1870), and Alexandria as late as 1880 – though by that time it had virtually ceased to circulate; hence the major revision made in 1881. It would be many decades before the 1857 version of the score was heard again. As part of a series of BBC broadcasts, leading Verdi authority Julian Budden masterminded a performance recorded before an invited audience at the Golders Green Hippodrome in London on 6th August 1975 and relayed on Radio 3 the following January. The central casting consisted of Josella Ligi (Amelia), André Turp (Gabriele Adorno), Sesto Bruscantini (Boccanegra) and Gwynne Howell (Fiesco), conducted by John Matheson. (Further references to the four principal roles follow this voice order.) As part of a ‘Verdi Festival’, the Royal Opera presented the 1857 version in concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank on 29th June 1995, with Amanda Roocroft, José Cura, Anthony Michaels-Moore and Alastair Miles; Mark Elder conducted the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. During the equivalent event two years later, the Royal Opera staged the 1857 version at Covent Garden on 28th June 1997; Ian Judge directed a traditional staging designed by John Gunter and Deirdre Clancy, with Elder again conducting, and a cast consisting of Kallen Esperian, Plácido Domingo, Sergei Leiferkus and Jaako Ryhänen. Revised Version (1881) The revised version of Simon Boccanegra opened at La Scala on 24th March 1881; the conductor was Franco Faccio, sets were by Girolamo Magnani (who had earlier designed the production in Reggio Emilia in 1857) with costumes by Alfredo Edel. Effectively directed by Verdi himself, the production satisfied the composer’s high standards. The first night obtained a genuine success, which made Verdi believe that the opera might finally enter the repertory ‘as so many of its sisters have done, although the subject is terribly sad’. But for Verdi, box-office success remained the final arbiter of a work’s validity. ‘The fact is,’ he subsequently wrote to his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, ‘that the ten performances of Boccanegra brought 45

Simon Boccanegra

in very little, and that is what makes me unhappy.’ The last three performances, though, did sell out. From an artistic point of view Verdi was more than happy, especially with Victor Maurel’s assumption of the title role. As he wrote to the retired soprano Maria Waldmann on 5th April: ‘You gave me hope that you would come to Milan for the opening night of Boccanegra. […] You would have heard ugly music, but a good performance and a superb singing actor in the part of Simon. Truly an artist! I don’t have to tell you about the success, of which you are already aware.’ Immediately following the first night he informed another friend, Count Opprandino Arrivabene, that his opera had finally been vindicated: ‘Even before last night’s performance, if I had had the time to write to you, I would have told you that the broken legs of this old Boccanegra seemed well mended to me. The success of last night confirmed my opinion. So then: very good performance on everyone’s part; stupendous on the part of the protagonist; excellent success.’ A later letter (2nd April) to the same correspondent notes: ‘From what they write to me it seems that Boccanegra received the same applause on the fourth night as on the others, if not more. What pleases me most is that the theatre was more crowded than at the second and third performances.’ Following the end of the run, Ricordi wrote to Verdi (18th April) to confirm the artistic success: ‘All the performances, without exception, were excellent on everyone’s part; I won’t speak of Maurel, but, for example, you cannot believe what an immense improvement you would have found in Tamagno, who by singing the opera again and again has better understood his part both musically and dramatically; on the last nights he had exceptionally beautiful moments and aroused the enthusiasm of the audience.’ The revision’s first performance abroad came on 18th November 1882, when a cast led by Amalie Materna (who had created Wagner’s Kundry earlier in the year) sang in a German-language production at the Vienna Court Opera. Some months later, Ricordi confirmed its success to the composer: ‘Our lawyer in Vienna, Dr Eirich, has written to me that Boccanegra was revived with 46

a performance and reception history

the greatest, the most complete success, and asks me to give you this news…’ A Parisian staging proved more troublesome. It was staged at the Théâtre de la Gaîté on 27th November 1883 as the opening night of a venture organised by Victor Maurel to resuscitate Paris’s longstanding Italian-language company, which had ceased operations in 1878. Maurel and his La Scala colleague Édouard De Reszke sang in the production, joined by conductor Faccio. Soprano Fidès Devriès, however, wanted to reinstate an 1857 cabaletta cut from the 1881 score. Very reluctantly, Verdi agreed. ‘It’s an outrage!!’ he wrote to his publisher. ‘But let’s get it over with!’ Victor Hugo and Charles Gounod were amongst those attending the opening night. Other international productions were few and far between: the revised version was staged in Constantinople (1884), Lisbon (1887), Buenos Aires and Montevideo (1889), Madrid (1890), Cairo and Alexandria (1904). In Italy, there were productions in Naples (1883), Venice (1885), Genoa (1892, under Arturo Toscanini) and Rome (1892). But once again the work’s progress faltered, though La Scala loyally returned to it in 1883, 1890 and 1910. In 1883 Ricordi published a disposizione scenica (or production manual) for Boccanegra, containing detailed design plans, stage diagrams, descriptions of costumes, lists of props and instructions for physical action and movement, similar to equivalent existing publications for Un ballo in maschera and La forza del destino.2 Since they hired out the scores and orchestral parts, this was another way of ensuring that authorized stagings would follow, as far as possible, the intentions of Verdi himself as relayed by his publisher. (Giulio Ricordi was credited as author.) One can assume that a close similarity of approach and overall look would have typified resulting productions – something that applied to other works by Verdi, Puccini and their colleagues in the Ricordi stable whose operatic scores also came accompanied by a disposizione scenica. The document also provides such details as the ages of the characters: Boccanegra is twenty-five in the Prologue, Fiesco forty. In the remainder of the 2 See appendix on pp. 219–224 for a reproduction of an extract from the final scene.

47

Simon Boccanegra

opera, which takes place twenty-five years later, Amelia is twentyseven and Gabriele Adorno thirty. Piave, in notes for the costumes for the original production (in four acts), had imagined them slightly differently: here Boccanegra is thirty-six in Act One, Fiesco forty-five, Amelia twenty-seven and Adorno twenty-eight. The Verdi Renaissance A forgotten work in the Verdian canon by the early 1920s – when its composer’s reputation was at its lowest, and his output represented on the international stage by no more than a handful of popular titles – Simon Boccanegra would make an extraordinary comeback as a central plank of the so-called Verdi Renaissance that took off in Germany and Austria from the middle of the decade onwards. The main protagonists of this renewed interest in Verdi’s work included the theatre director Lothar Wallerstein, his frequent collaborator the conductor Clemens Krauss, and crucially the writer (and Expressionist playwright) Franz Werfel, who provided new translations of the librettos for use in German-language theatres. Renewed interest in the composer was first sparked by Werfel’s biographical novel Verdi: Roman der Oper (1924), which was succeeded by a German edition of Verdi’s letters (1925) for which Werfel provided the preface. His first libretto translation, of La forza del destino (1925, as Die Macht des Schicksals), helped establish that work in the repertoire, and later he would do the same for Don Carlos (1932). On 12th January 1930 Maria Németh, Koloman Von Pataky, Wilhelm Rode and Josef von Manowarda sang Boccanegra in Werfel’s translation under Krauss’s baton and Wallerstein’s direction at the Vienna State Opera, inaugurating a widespread revival of the work that gave it a much needed shot in the arm. Without this, its subsequent performance history might have been very different. In the German-speaking world alone, stagings quickly followed in 1930 in Berlin (under Fritz Stiedry) and Frankfurt; in 1931 at the Neues Deutsches Theater in Prague (under George Szell) as well as Basle and Hamburg; in 1932 in Cologne and Stuttgart; and in 1940 in Munich. Italy followed suit, with productions in Naples (1930) 48

a performance and reception history

and Genoa (1931). Vittorio Gui conducted Boccanegra at La Scala in 1933 and Florence in 1938; Gino Marinuzzi in Rome (1934), Bologna (1938), and again in Rome in 1941, when a later celebrated exponent of the title role – Tito Gobbi – first sang it. As a direct result of the newfound interest in Verdi emanating from Europe, the Metropolitan Opera in New York presented its first staging of the opera (also the first in North America) on 28th January 1932. The cast consisted of Maria Müller, Giovanni Martinelli, Lawrence Tibbett and Ezio Pinza, the conductor was Italian opera specialist Tullio Serafin, the director of the lavish staging Alexander Sanine and its designer Camillo Parravicini. A clear success, the staging was regularly revived up to 1939. Important theatres in South America, such as the Colón in Buenos Aires and the Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, emulated the Met in 1935 and 1942 respectively. Leading music critics welcomed the piece to the US, as well as praising its staging and Lawrence Tibbett’s performance of the title role, which became one of his most admired assumptions. In the New York Sun, W.J. Henderson wrote: ‘Simon Boccanegra is fifty years old and was buried many lustrums ago. But it has had its European rebirth, and last night it was revived at the Metropolitan Opera House with splendours of scenery and attire and wit, musical pomp and circumstance. The resurrection was attended by a numerous company and there were loud rejoicings. […] On the whole, Simon Boccanegra proved to be an opera of worth, revealing in every page the hand of the great master.’ Thereafter Boccanegra became a staple of the Met repertoire, with further new stagings in 1949 (by Désiré Defrère, conducted by Stiedry, and starring Leonard Warren); 1960 (by Margaret Webster, conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos, again with Warren); 1984 (by Tito Capobianco, conducted by James Levine, with Sherrill Milnes); and 1995 (by Giancarlo del Monaco, again conducted by Levine, with Vladimir Chernov). All of them, including the present one, have conformed to a broadly traditional visual approach, with historical stage realism purveyed to Met standards of lavishness.

49

Simon Boccanegra

The Post-War Period Though the Royal Opera House had announced Simon Boccanegra for its 1919 season – even providing cast details – no production took place. The work’s first performance in the UK was eventually given on 27th October 1948 by Sadler’s Wells Opera, with Joyce Gartside, James Johnston, Arnold Matters and Howell Glynne singing under the baton of Michael Mudie; the director was John Moody and the designer John Piper. Sadler’s Wells’s director, Norman Tucker, proposed to create a version of the opera that would make ‘intelligible to English-speaking audiences a plot of the profoundest obscurity’. But as Susie Gilbert records in her history of ENO, Opera for Everybody, his translation ‘was an example of a licence with the original that would soon be considered unacceptable. His version included an interlude that he composed between Acts Three and Four to shorten and make more intelligible the interval between the taking of the poison by the Doge in the middle of Act Three and his long-delayed death scene at the end of the opera.’ Otherwise, Piper’s ‘sombre but rich settings’ were much admired, as was John Moody’s ability to move both individuals and crowds on stage. The production was a major success for Sadler’s Wells, with additional performances scheduled; writing in the Financial Times some years later, Andrew Porter described it as one of the most important events in the revival and re-evaluation of Verdi’s lesser-known works. The even more belated first production of Simon Boccanegra at Covent Garden came on 1st December 1965; Orianna Santunione, Renato Cioni, Tito Gobbi and Joseph Rouleau were the main vocal participants in a staging by Gobbi himself. Oliviero de Fabritiis conducted. Successive stagings at the Royal Opera House have all maintained an essentially traditional stance. Filippo Sanjust’s selfdesigned visualization followed Gobbi’s on 2nd June 1980; Colin Davis conducted a cast led by Kiri Te Kanawa, Veriano Luchetti, Sherrill Milnes and Robert Lloyd. In 1991 Elijah Moshinsky presented a new version designed by Michael Yeargan; Georg Solti conducted Te Kanawa, Michael Sylvester, Alexandru Agache and Roberto Scandiuzzi. Ian Judge’s 1997 staging, originally made for 50

a performance and reception history

the 1857 version of the score (see above), was revised and extended in 2008 to fit the 1881 version. Moshinsky’s staging was brought back for tenor Plácido Domingo’s much heralded assumption of the baritone title role on 29th June 2010, conducted by Antonio Pappano, a performance that transferred (in concert) to and was televised from the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall on 18th July. Domingo’s unusual undertaking was also seen – though in different stagings, and with different casts and conductors – in Berlin, New York and Vienna in 2009–10. Following the example of Sadler’s Wells and Covent Garden, most of Britain’s other major companies eventually added Boccanegra to their repertoires: Welsh National Opera in 1970, Scottish Opera in 1978 and Glyndebourne in 1986. Undoubtedly the most important production of the opera since the Second World War inaugurated La Scala’s 1971–72 season on the traditional opening night of 7th December. Theatre director Giorgio Strehler staged the opera, collaborating with designer Ezio Frigerio and La Scala’s music director, Claudio Abbado; the first cast comprised Mirella Freni, Gianni Raimondi, Piero Cappuccilli (who would be acclaimed as the Boccanegra of his generation) and Nicolai Ghiaurov. The staging – much sparer than audiences were used to at that period, offering delicate symbolism and suggestive lighting rather than individual solid buildings with realistic fixtures and fittings – was recognized as a classic from the first, and would reappear regularly in the Milanese repertoire up till 1982, also touring widely: to Moscow (1974), London and Washington (1976), and Tokyo, Osaka and Yokohama (1982). It was also recreated at the Paris Opéra for the work’s belated first performances there (1978) and was later restaged in Vienna, once again under Abbado’s baton (1984). On its appearance at Covent Garden on 4th March 1976, Ronald Crichton wrote admiringly in the Financial Times of ‘tall, elongated Romanesque and early Gothic stonework sheering up beyond shallow flights of steps. There are glimpses of the sea that forms an ever-present background to the action and of filmy-white sails. Costumes, blue for the plebeian faction, crimson for the patricians, are quietly sumptuous. There is a vast, cream-and-mulberry brocaded 51

Simon Boccanegra

drop curtain, lowered during Simon’s soft, ecstatic cry of “Figlia” at the end of the recognition duet with his daughter. The following scene for the conspiring Paolo and Pietro is played in front of it. Described in print the effect may sound vulgar. In the theatre it was breathtaking.’ Another experienced commentator, Opera’s editor Harold Rosenthal, described it as ‘one of the few truly great operatic experiences of the post-war era; a performance and a production that were all of a piece and one that showed that La Scala truly has Verdi in its blood’. During its long life, singers and even conductors came and went in the production, which nevertheless retained a special integrity right to the end. For some reason, the historically realistic visual approach to this particular work has proved unusually durable and even dangerous to alter, as director David Alden and designer David Fielding discovered when they presented an alternative approach to the piece at English National Opera on 2nd April 1987. This was during the so-called ‘Powerhouse’ era, defined by its managerial trio of Peter Jonas, David Pountney and Mark Elder, when ENO first nights regularly turned into noisy battlegrounds between supporters of traditionalism on the one hand and radicalism on the other. A sense of instant controversy hung over many productions, with Simon Boccanegra becoming a particular cause célèbre. The opera had been translated by James Fenton. It was conducted by Mark Elder with a strong cast led by Janice Cairns, Arthur Davies, Jonathan Summers and Gwynne Howell. It was an evening that divided the audience – critics and public alike. In Opera magazine, the editor, Rodney Milnes – no automatic reactionary in his tastes – found ‘determined brutality and ugliness’ in the staging. ‘It looked quite horrible,’ he went on, listing piles of stones, two stuffed vultures, kitchen chairs and strip lights, a fire bucket, sledgehammers and ‘a huge hand reminiscent of Saul Steinberg that descended amid much clattering of ropes for the Council Chamber scene, had its finger lopped off by the mob, and aroused the audience’s mirth’. Yet he also found some of the imagery obstinately memorable while praising ‘long episodes of sensitively directed stage action’, as well as fine individual performances, and Mark Elder’s conducting. 52

a performance and reception history

Perhaps Alden and his designer, on this occasion, were ahead of their audience, or the victims of a backlash reaction to other people’s work as much as their own; back in 1987 considered an enfant terrible, Alden himself is nowadays viewed as an old master. Nothing in his Boccanegra staging would be likely to raise eyebrows today. In hindsight it was a remarkable piece of work caught up in an ongoing media-fuelled conflict that here reached one of its more notable skirmishes. Alden later defended his staging as ‘a poem that is a collection of images which are all very specific and blend together into a whole rather mysterious event’. Pointing out the different periods represented in any contemporary staging of the piece – the fourteenth century of the setting, Verdi’s creations of 1857 and 1881, as well as the 1980s – the director insisted that ‘it’s not a simple depiction of a historical moment, it’s a deeply unconscious poem, a psychological landscape about Verdi and the Italian people’. Few subsequent stagings have attracted either the almost universal praise accorded Strehler’s La Scala version, or the equally strong but more mixed reaction that greeted Alden’s. Abbado returned to the score once more for a production at the 2000 Salzburg Easter Festival that transferred to the Maggio Musicale, Florence, two years later. The conductor was now working with the German director Peter Stein and a cast initially led by Karita Mattila, Roberto Alagna, Carlo Guelfi and Julian Konstantinov. Commenting on the first night in Salzburg, Andrew Clark in Opera magazine acknowledged that Abbado still had no peer in this music but felt that Stein’s production, lurching ‘between the classical, the conventional and the contrived, with a handful of contemporary design statements thrown in for good measure’, hardly matched up to the music-making on offer. Reviewing the Florence performances, Julian Budden recalled, also in Opera magazine, that that previous revival of the work in the Tuscan capital (at the Teatro Comunale in 1988) had reproduced the original set designs of the 1881 La Scala production, as well as attempting to follow the instructions of the disposizione scenica – apparently with mixed results. In his review of this self-consciously historical staging, Budden listed the buildings prescribed in the prologue, going on to note that ‘all these were impressively realized in the set, but 53

Simon Boccanegra

they had the effect of dwarfing the human figures and thus blunting the dramatic impact. Formal gestures were the order of the day, not all of them meaningful […] There is much to be said for sparing us Paolo’s elaborate pantomime on being ordered to curse himself.’ In this instance Virginio Puecher was responsible for reviving the 1881 visuals in new sets created by Raffaele de Savio that copied Girolamo Magnani’s originals. What is noticeable, throughout the work’s performance history, is that an approach at least aiming at visual-historical accuracy has tended to predominate, even in recent times when alternative modes of presentation are more generally acceptable. Even more striking, and ultimately more important, is the extraordinary rise in the reputation of the work itself, from being initially judged excessively severe to being acclaimed as one its composer’s very finest achievements. It has taken a long time, but the originality and integrity of one of Verdi’s most ambitious and subtle scores have been entirely vindicated.

54

Thematic Guide

Themes from the opera have been identified by the numbers in square brackets in the article on the music. These are also printed at corresponding points in the libretto, so that the words can be related to the musical themes. 

                                                                                     



                            



            sotto voce



  

  

   

 





                     

 dolcissimo

     

            

     

    



                 







      

    



  

 con forza

 

   

    

        





cantabile



  

  

 

           

   

55

    

         







   

  

 con forza



   





        





            Boccanegra Simon

cantabile



  

  

   

    

 



cantabile



            

      



     







    



 



     

       

     

                 



  

 

  

 





         

    

    







  

  





    



 





 



  









  

  



   

  

                    



            



      



 





      



              



  

  

  





    

 

     



     

  

 con espressione





molto piano per quattro battute

    

















 cantabile





  

56





      





  

                 thematic      guide   



                         

      



                      



                            

  

      



                        



                               



più più mosso mosso mosso con con con espress. espress. espress. più mossopiù con espress.

                    



  

                                      









                                 



                            sotto sotto sotto voce voce voce  sotto voce   



               

   

  

                         

 

         

                                                                  





con maesta                    

     



  



    





  



                 





     









  

  



     

   

           

       



dolcissimo animando a tempo                                    







             





 tutta forza







                

    57                 





dolcissimo animando a tempo                                   Simon Boccanegra  









             



 tutta forza

           



              





         a poco a poco string.











     



  

 



  

   



       (poison/revenge)

    

    

 

         







                    





                



    

   



   





 con forza 





         

   

    



  



  

  



                   



con espressione

   

         



con espressione                 



    



      



                     







            

 







                



con espressione

  

       



                                

 accentate 

  





  





           

   

      









                                    

       





    

       

  

58

 

  

    



                              guide   thematic

 accentate 

  





  





           

   

      





 







                                    

       





    

       

    

  

  

    

 

    

  



 



       

    

  

            



  



 

















                



  



  

       



 





con espressione                







  

  



       



  

  



  



     

 



      

59

    



    

 



THE CHARACTERS

Prologue Simon Boccanegra, a corsair in the servicebaritone of the Genoese Republic Jacopo Fiesco, a Genoese nobleman bass Paolo Albiani, a Genoese goldsmith bass Pietro, a Genoese popular leaderbaritone

Opera Simon Boccanegra, the first Doge of Genoa  baritone Maria Boccanegra, his daughter, undersoprano the name Amelia Grimaldi Jacopo Fiesco, under the name Andreabass Gabriele Adorno, a Genoese gentlemantenor Paolo Albiani, the Doge’s favourite courtierbass Pietro, another courtierbaritone A Captain of the Crossbowmen tenor Amelia’s maidservant mezzo-soprano Soldiers, Sailors, Populace, Senators, the Doge’s court, African prisoners of both sexes*

In and around Genoa around the middle of the fourteenth century. Between the prologue and the opera twenty-five years pass. * Only in the 1857 version; in 1881 the ballet was cut.

Simon Boccanegra Opera in a Prologue and Three Acts by Giuseppe Verdi Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, with additions by Giuseppe Montanelli Additions and alterations for the revised version by Arrigo Boito English translation of the 1881 libretto by Lionel Salter English translation of the 1857 libretto by Emanuela Guastella Simon Boccanegra was first performed in four acts at the Teatro La Fenice, Venice, on 12th March 1857. The opera was then revised and the first performance of this second version, divided into a prologue and three acts, was at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 24th March 1881. It was first performed in the United States in the revised version at the Metropolitan Opera, New York on 28th January 1932. It was first performed in Britain at Sadler’s Wells Theatre on 28th October 1948. The text given here is the 1881 libretto. Variants from the 1857 libretto, which include references to Julian Budden’s chapter on the opera in The Operas of Verdi (vol. 2), are given at the end of the main text. The variants are referred to in the 1881 libretto as note cues. The numbers in square brackets refer to the Thematic Guide.

PROLOGO

Scena I Paolo e Pietro in iscena, continuando un discorso. Una Piazza di Genova. Nel fondo la chiesa di San Lorenzo. A destra il palazzo dei Fieschi con gran balcone: nel muro di fianco al balcone è un’immagine, davanti a cui arde un lanternino; a sinistra altre case. Varie strade conducono alla piazza. È notte.[1]

PAOLO Che dicesti? all’onor di primo abate Lorenzin, l’usuriere? PIETRO   di lui più degno!

Altro proponi

PAOLO   Il prode che da’ nostri mari cacciava l’african pirata, e al ligure vessillo rese l’antica nominanza altera. PIETRO Intesi… e il premio? PAOLO  

Oro, possanza, onore. 62

PROLOGUE

Scene I Paolo and Pietro in the middle of a conversation. A Square in Genoa. In the background, the church of San Lorenzo. On the right, the palace of the Fieschi, with a large balcony: in a niche in the wall beside the balcony is an image of the Virgin, in front of which burns a lamp; on the left, other houses. Several streets lead to the square. It is night. [1]

Paolo What did you say? Elect as Doge the usurer Lorenzin? Pietro   Suggest someone else more worthy than he! Paolo   That brave man who chased the African pirates from our seas and restored to the Ligurian flag its proud ancient glory. Pietro I follow you… and my reward? Paolo  

Riches, power, honour. 63

Simon Boccanegra

PIETRO Vendo a tal prezzo il popolar favore. (Si dan la mano; Pietro parte.) Scena II Paolo, solo.

PAOLO Aborriti patrizi, alle cime ove alberga il vostro orgoglio, disprezzato plebeo, salire io voglio. Scena III Paolo e Simone, che entra frettoloso.

SIMONE Un amplesso… Che avvenne? Da Savona perché qui m’appellasti? PAOLO   All’alba eletto esser vuoi nuovo abate? SIMONE  

Io?… no.

PAOLO   ducal corona? SIMONE   PAOLO  

Ti tenta

Vaneggi? E Maria?

SIMONE O vittima innocente del funesto amor mio! Dimmi, di lei che sai? Le favellasti? 64

prologue

Pietro For such a price I will sell the people’s favour. (They clasp hands; Pietro leaves.) Scene II Paolo alone.

Paolo Detested patricians, I, a despised plebeian, will rise to the heights where dwells your pride. Scene III The above and Simon, who enters hurriedly.

Simon I embrace you!… What has happened? Why have you summoned me from Savona? Paolo   the new Doge at dawn? Simon  

Do you wish to be elected

I?… No.

Paolo   not tempt you? Simon   Paolo  

Does the Doge’s crown

Are you joking? And Maria?

Simon O innocent victim of my fatal love! Tell me, what news have you of her? Have you spoken to her? 65

Simon Boccanegra

PAOLO (additando il palazzo Fieschi)   Prigioniera geme in quella magion. SIMONE  

Maria!

PAOLO   al Doge chi potria? SIMONE  

Negarla

Misera!

PAOLO  

Assenti!

SIMONE Paolo… PAOLO   Tutto disposi… e sol ti chiedo parte ai perigli e alla possanza. SIMONE  

Sia.

PAOLO In vita e in morte? SIMONE  

Sia.

PAOLO S’appressa alcun… T’ascondi… Per poco ancor, mistero ne circondi. (Simone s’allontana, Paolo si trae in disparte presso il palazzo dei Fieschi.)[2] Scena IV Paolo, Pietro, marinari e artigiani 66

prologue

Paolo (pointing to the Fieschi palace)   As a prisoner she languishes in that palace. Simon  

Maria!

Paolo   deny her to the Doge? Simon  

Who could

Poor girl!

Paolo  

Do you agree?

Simon Paolo… Paolo   I have arranged everything… I ask only to share in your dangers and your power. Simon  

So be it.

Paolo In life and death? Simon  

So be it.

Paolo Someone is coming… Conceal yourself… For the time being, keep this dark. (Simon goes away. Paolo stands aside in the shadows of the Fieschi palace.) [2] Scene IV Paolo, Pietro, sailors and workmen.) 67

Simon Boccanegra

PIETRO All’alba tutti qui verrete? CORO  

Tutti.

PIETRO Niun pei patrizi? CORO   Niuno. A Lorenzino tutti il voto darem. PIETRO  

Venduto è a’ Fieschi.

CORO Dunque chi fia l’eletto? PIETRO  

Un prode.

CORO:  

Sì.

PIETRO Un popolan. CORO   Ben dici… ma fra i nostri sai l’uom? PIETRO:   CORO  

Sì. E chi? Risuoni il nome suo!

PAOLO (avanzandosi) Simone Boccanegra. CORO Il Corsar? 68

prologue

Pietro Will you all be here at dawn? Chorus  

All of us.

Pietro Not one for the patricians? Chorus   Not one. We will all give our vote to Lorenzino. Pietro  

He has sold himself to the Fieschi.

Chorus Then who should be elected? Pietro  

A man of valour.

Chorus  

Aye!

Pietro A man of the people. Chorus   Well said… but do you know such a man among us? Pietro  

Yes.

Chorus  

Then who? … Let us hear his name!

Paolo (stepping forward) Simon Boccanegra. Chorus The corsair? 69

Simon Boccanegra

PAOLO  

Sì… il corsaro all’alto scranno…

CORO E qui? PAOLO   Verrà. CORO   PAOLO  

E i Fieschi? Taceranno.

(Chiama tutti intorno a sé; quindi, indicando il palazzo de’ Fieschi, dice loro con mistero)

L’atra magion vedete?… de’ Fieschi è l’empio ostello,[3] una beltà infelice geme sepolta in quello; sono i lamenti suoi la sola voce umana che risuonar s’ascolta nell’ampia tomba arcana. CORO Già volgono più lune, che la gentil sembianza non allegrò i veroni della romita stanza; passando ogni pietoso invan mirar desia[4] la bella prigioniera, la misera Maria. PAOLO Si schiudon quelle porte solo al patrizio altero, che ad arte si ravvolge nell’ombre del mistero. ma vedi in notte cupa per le deserte sale errar sinistra vampa, qual d’anima infernale. CORO È vero… Oh cielo!… Gran Dio! Par l’antro de’ fantasmi!… O qual terror!… PAOLO  

Guardate,

(Si vede il riverbero d’un lume.) 70

prologue

Paolo  

Yes… the corsair to the throne…

Chorus Is he here? Paolo   Chorus  

He is coming. And the Fieschi?

Paolo  

They will be silent.

(He beckons them all around him; then, pointing to the Fieschi palace, says mysteriously)

You see that gloomy building?… It is the wicked abode [3] of the Fieschi, where an unhappy beauty lies imprisoned; her laments are the only human sounds that are heard to echo in that vast mysterious tomb. Chorus Many moons have passed since her sweet face brightened the balcony of that lonely room: every pitying passer-by vainly seeks [4] to see the lovely prisoner, the unfortunate Maria. Paolo Those doors open only to the proud patrician, who deliberately wraps himself in the shades of mystery. But at dead of night I have seen a strange flame wandering through the deserted halls like a soul in torment. Chorus It’s true… O Heaven!… Almighty God! Like a cavern of ghosts!… How horrible!… Paolo  

Look,

(The reflection of a lamp is seen.) 71

Simon Boccanegra

La fatal vampa appare… CORO, PIETRO  

Oh ciel!

PAOLO   V’allontanate. Si caccino i demoni col segno della croce… All’alba. CORO   PIETRO  

Qui. Simone.

CORO Simone ad una voce. (Partono.) Scena V Fiesco esce dal palazzo

FIESCO A te l’estremo addio, palagio altero, freddo sepolcro dell’angiolo mio! né a proteggerti io valsi! Oh maledetto! (volgendosi all’immagine)

E tu, Vergin, soffristi rapita a lei la verginal corona? Ma che dissi! deliro! ah mi perdona! Il lacerato spirito[5] del mesto genitore era serbato a strazio d’infamia e di dolore. Il serto a lei de’ martiri pietoso il cielo diè… resa al fulgor degli angeli, prega, Maria, per me. 72

prologue

The fatal light appears… Chorus and Pietro  

O Heaven!

Paolo   Go home. Drive away the demons with the sign of the Cross… Until daybreak. Chorus   Pietro  

Here. Simon.

Chorus With one accord, Simon. (Exeunt.) Scene V Fiesco emerges from the palace.)

Fiesco A last farewell to you, proud palace, cold tomb of my angel! I was not able to protect you! Oh cursed man! (turning to the image of the Virgin)

And thou, Blessed Virgin, didst suffer her crown of virginity to be stolen? But what am I saying? I am raving! Ah! forgive me! The tormented spirit [5] of a heartbroken father has been subjected to the anguish of shame and grief. – Merciful heaven has given her a martyr’s crown… O Maria, restored to the radiance of the angels, pray for me. 73

Simon Boccanegra (S’odono lamenti dall’interno del palazzo.)

DONNE È morta! È morta! a lei s’apron le sfere! Mai più! mai più non la vedremo in terra! UOMINI Miserere! miserere! (Varie persone escono dal palazzo, e traversando mestamente la piazza s’allontanano.) Scena VI Fiesco e Simone, che ritorna in scena esultante

SIMONE Suona ogni labbro il mio nome. O Maria, forse in breve potrai dirmi tuo sposo! (scorge Fiesco)

 

Alcun veggo!… chi fia?

FIESCO Simon?… SIMONE  

Tu!

FIESCO   Qual cieco fato[6] a oltraggiarmi ti traea?… Sul tuo capo io qui chiedea l’ira vindice del ciel. SIMONE Padre mio, pietade imploro supplichevole a’ tuoi piedi… Il perdono a me concedi. 74

prologue (Lamentations are heard from within the palace.)

Women She is dead! She is dead! For her the heavens open! Never more! never more shall we see her on earth! Men Miserere! Miserere! (Several people come out of the palace, sadly cross the square and go off.) Scene VI The above and Simon, who returns exultantly.

Simon My name is on every tongue. O Maria, soon perhaps you will be able to call me your husband! (He sees Fiesco.)

 

I see someone!… Who is it?

Fiesco Simon? Simon   You! Fiesco   What blind fate [6] led you here to affront me?… I was calling down on your head the avenging wrath of heaven. Simon My lord, kneeling at your feet I beg for mercy… Grant me forgiveness. 75

Simon Boccanegra

FIESCO Tardi è omai SIMONE   Non sii crudel. Sublimarmi a lei sperai sovra l’ali della gloria, strappai serti alla vittoria per l’altare dell’amor! FIESCO Io fea plauso al tuo valore, ma le offese non perdono… Te vedessi asceso in trono… SIMONE Taci… FIESCO   Segno all’odio mio e all’anàtema di Dio è di Fiesco l’offensor. SIMONE Pace… FIESCO   No, pace non fora se pria l’un di noi non mora. SIMONE Vuoi col sangue mio placarti? (Gli presenta il petto)

Qui ferisci! FIESCO (ritraendosi con orgoglio)   Assassinarti? SIMONE Sì, m’uccidi, e almen sepolta fia con me tant’ira. 76

prologue

Fiesco It is too late. Simon   Do not be cruel. I hoped to raise myself to her level on the wings of glory; I have snatched the wreath of victory for the altar of love! Fiesco I applaud your valour, but cannot pardon your misdeeds… If I should see you elevated to the throne… Simon No more… Fiesco   He who outraged Fiesco will be the object of my hatred and of the curse of God. Simon Peace… Fiesco   No, there can be no peace until one of us dies. Simon Would you be appeased with my blood? (He bares his chest.)

Strike here! Fiesco (drawing back proudly)   Murder you? Simon Yes, kill me, and at least let your wrath be buried with me… 77

Simon Boccanegra

FIESCO   Ascolta: se concedermi vorrai l’innocente sventurata che nascea d’impuro amor, io, che ancor non la mirai, giuro renderla beata, e tu avrai perdono allor. SIMONE Non poss’io! FIESCO  

Perché?

SIMONE   Sorte lei rapì… FIESCO  

Rubella

Favella.

SIMONE Del mar sul lido tra gente ostile[7] crescea nell’ombra quella gentile; crescea lontana dagli occhi miei, vegliava annosa donna su lei. Di là una notte varcando, solo dalla mia nave scesi a quel suolo. Corsi alla casa… n’era la porta serrata, muta! FIESCO  

La donna?

SIMONE  

Morta.

FIESCO E la tua figlia? 78

prologue

Fiesco   Listen: if you will give up to me that luckless innocent born of your lawless love, I, who have not yet seen her, swear to make her happy, and you will then have my pardon. Simon I cannot! Fiesco  

Why?

Simon   Cruel fate Stole her away… Fiesco  

Explain yourself.

Simon On the shore of a foreign land [7] the sweet child grew up hidden; she grew up far from my eyes, watched over by an aged woman. Sailing by one night, I disembarked alone from my ship on that soil. I hurried to the house… the door was locked, all was silent! Fiesco  

The woman?

Simon  

Dead.

Fiesco And your daughter? 79

Simon Boccanegra

SIMONE   Misera, trista, tre giorni pianse, tre giorni errò; scomparve poscia, né fu più vista, d’allora indarno cercata io l’ho. FIESCO Se il mio desire compir non puoi, pace non puote esser tra noi! Addio, Simone… (Gli volge le spalle.)

SIMONE   saprò placarti.

Coll’amor mio

FIESCO (freddo senza guardarlo)   No. SIMONE   FIESCO  

M’odi. Addio.

(S’allontana, poi si arresta in disparte ad osservare.)

SIMONE Oh de’ Fieschi implacata, orrida razza! E tra cotesti rettili nascea quella pura beltà?… Vederla voglio… Coraggio! (Va alla porta del palazzo e batte tre colpi)

  Muta è la magion de’ Fieschi? Dischiuse son le porte!… Quale mistero!… entriam. (Entra nel palazzo) 80

prologue

Simon   Wretched, alone, for three days she wept, three days she wandered; then she vanished and was seen no more; since then I have sought her in vain. Fiesco If you cannot grant my wish there can be no peace between us! Farewell, Simon… (He turns his back.)

Simon   with my love.

I can appease you

Fiesco (coldly, without looking at him)   No. Simon  

Hear me!

Fiesco  

Farewell.

(He moves away, then stops to watch, unseen.)

Simon Oh stony-hearted, implacable race of the Fieschi! From such reptiles was that pure beauty born?… I must see her!… Courage! (He goes to the door of the palace and knocks three times.)

  The house of the Fieschi silent? The doors are open!… How strange!… Let me enter. (He goes into the palace.) 81

Simon Boccanegra

FIESCO   gelida salma.

T’inoltra e stringi

SIMONE (comparso sul balcone)   Nessuno! qui sempre Silenzio e tenebra! (Stacca il lanternino della immagine ed entra; s’ode un grido poco dopo.)

 

Maria! Maria!!

FIESCO L’ora suonò del tuo castigo… SIMONE (esce dal palazzo atterrito)   È sogno! Sì; spaventoso, atroce sogno il mio! VOCI (da lontano) Boccanegra!… SIMONE  

Quai voci!

VOCI (più vicine)  

Boccanegra!

SIMONE Eco d’inferno è questo!… Scena VII Simone, Fiesco, Paolo, Pietro, Marinai, Popolo d’ambo i sessi con fiaccole accese.

PAOLO, PIETRO Doge il popol t’acclama! SIMONE  

Via, fantasmi! 82

prologue

Fiesco   a cold corpse.

Go in and embrace

Simon (appearing on the balcony)   No one! Everything here Is silent and dark! (He unhooks the small lamp from the niche to the Virgin and goes in; a moment later his cry is heard.)

 

Maria! Maria!…

Fiesco The hour of retribution has struck… Simon (coming out of the palace, terrified)   I am dreaming! Yes; this is a hideous, terrible dream! Voices (in the distance) Boccanegra!… Simon  

What are those voices?

Voices (nearer)  

Boccanegra!

Simon This is an echo from hell!. Scene VII The above, Paolo, Pietro, sailors and workmen enter with flaming torches.

Paolo and Pietro The people acclaim you Doge! Simon  

Away, phantoms! 83

Simon Boccanegra

PAOLO, PIETRO Che di’ tu? SIMONE  

Paolo!… Ah!… una tomba…

PAOLO  

Un trono!…

FIESCO (Doge Simon?… m’arde l’inferno in petto!) CORO Viva Simon, del popolo l’eletto! (S’alzano le fiaccole, le campane suonano a stormo… tamburi, ecc., ed alle grida ‘Viva Simone’ cala il sipario.)

84

prologue

Paolo and Pietro What are you saying? Simon  

Paolo!… Ah!… a tomb…

Paolo  

A throne!…

Fiesco (Simon Doge?… Hell burns in my breast!) Chorus Long live Simon, the people’s choice! (Torches are raised, bells ring wildly, drums etc., and to shouts of ‘Long live Simon!’ the curtain falls.)

85

ATTO PRIMO

Scena I Amelia osservando l’orizzonte. Giardino de’ Grimaldi fuori di Genova. Alla sinistra il palazzo; di fronte il mare. Spunta l’aurora.

Amelia Come in quest’ora bruna[8] sorridon gli astri e il mare! Come s’unisce, o luna, all’onda il tuo chiaror! Amante amplesso pare di due verginei cor! Ma gli astri e la marina che pingono alla mente dell’orfana meschina? La notte atra, crudel, quando la pia morente sclamò: ti guardi il ciel. O altero ostel, soggiorno di stirpe ancor più altera, il tetto disadorno non obliai per te! Solo in tua pompa austera Amor sorride a me. (È giorno) 1 86

ACT ONE

Scene I Amelia, looking at the horizon. The garden of the Grimaldi palace, outside Genoa. On the left, the palace; opposite, the sea. Dawn is breaking.

Amelia How the stars and the sea [8] are smiling at this dark hour! O moon, how your radiance merges with the waves! It is like the loving embrace of two virginal hearts! But what do the stars and sea bring to the mind of the wretched orphan? That dark, cruel night, when the good old woman, dying, cried out: ‘May Heaven watch over you!’ O proud abode, home of a still prouder race, I have not forgotten my humble roof for you! But only in your stony splendour does Love smile on me. (Day breaks.) 1 87

Simon Boccanegra

S’inalba il ciel, ma l’amoroso canto non s’ode ancora! Ei mi terge ogni dì, come l’aurora la rugiada dei fior, del ciglio il pianto. UNA VOCE (lontana) Cielo di stelle orbato,[9] di fior vedovo prato, è l’alma senza amor. AMELIA Ciel! la sua voce! È desso! Ei s’avvicina! oh gioia! ‘Tutto m’arride l’universo adesso!’ UNA VOCE (più vicina) Se manca il cor che t’ama, non empiono tua brama gemme, possanza, onor. AMELIA Ei vien! l’amor m’avvampa in seno e spezza il freno l’ansante cor! Scena II Amelia e Gabriele dalla destra.

GABRIELE Anima mia! AMELIA  

Perché sì tardi giungi?

GABRIELE Perdona, o cara… I lunghi indugi miei t’apprestano grandezza… AMELIA Pavento… 88

act one

Dawn breaks in the sky, but my lover’s song is not yet heard! Each day he wipes the tears from my eyes, as dawn dries the dew on the flowers. A voice (in the distance) Like the sky swept of stars, [9] like a meadow bereft of flowers, is a heart without love. Amelia O Heaven! His voice! It is he! He is coming! O joy! ‘The whole world smiles on me now!’ A voice (nearer) Without a heart to love you, not riches, power or honours can satisfy your longing. Amelia He is coming! Love blazes up in my breast, and my yearning heart bursts its bonds! Scene II The above, and Gabriele from the right.

Gabriele Beloved! Amelia   Why so late in coming? Gabriele Forgive me, dearest… My long delay will help to bring you greatness… Amelia I am afraid… 89

Simon Boccanegra

GABRIELE   Che? AMELIA   L’arcano tuo conobbi… A me il sepolcro appresti, il patibolo a te! GABRIELE  

Che pensi?

AMELIA   Io amo Andrea qual padre, il sai; pur m’atterrisce… In cupa notte non vi mirai sotto le tetre volte errar sovente pensosi, irrequieti? GABRIELE  

Chi?

AMELIA   Tu e Andrea, e Lorenzino e gli altri… GABRIELE   Ah taci… il vento ai tiranni potria recar tai voci! Parlan le mura… un delator s’asconde ad ogni passo. AMELIA  

Tu tremi?

GABRIELE   fantasmi scaccia!

I funesti

AMELIA   Fantasmi dicesti? Vieni a mirar la cerula 90

act one

Gabriele  

Why?

Amelia   I know your secret… You are preparing a grave for me, the scaffold for yourself! Gabriele  

What do you mean?

Amelia   Andrea as a father, you know that; but I am frightened… At dead of night have I not often seen you moving furtively and restlessly in the shadows? Gabriele  

I love

Who?

Amelia   You and Andrea, and Lorenzino, and others… Gabriele   Ah, hush… The wind could carry your words to the tyrants! Walls have ears… an informer lurks at every step. Amelia  

You are trembling?..

Gabriele   gloomy phantoms!

Dispel these

Amelia   You say phantoms? Come and look at the sea, 91

Simon Boccanegra

marina tremolante; là Genova torreggia sul talamo spumante; là i tuoi nemici imperano, vincerli indarno speri… Ripara i tuoi pensieri[10] al porto dell’amor. GABRIELE Angiol che dall’empireo piegasti a terra l’ale, e come faro sfolgori sul tramite mortale, non ricercar dell’odio i funebri misteri; ripara i tuoi pensieri al porto dell’amor. AMELIA (passando a destra) Ah! GABRIELE   Che mai fia? AMELIA   Vedi quell’uom? qual ombra ogni dì appar. GABRIELE  

Forse un rival?

Scena III Amelia, Gabriele, un’Ancella, quindi Pietro.

ANCELLA   Del Doge un messagger di te chiede. AMELIA  

S’appressi. 92

act one

azure and shimmering; there Genoa towers above the foaming ocean bed; there your enemies rule, vainly you hope to conquer them… Shelter your thoughts [10] in the harbour of love. Gabriele Angel who from heaven came winging down to earth, and shine like a beacon on our mortal course, do not seek to fathom the dark mysteries of hate; shelter your thoughts in the harbour of love. Amelia (looking to the right) Ah! Gabriele   What is it? Amelia   Do you see that man? Every day he appears, like a shadow. Gabriele  

Perhaps I have a rival?

Scene III The above, a Servant, then Pietro.

Servant   from the Doge is asking for you. Amelia  

Admit him. 93

A messenger

Simon Boccanegra (L’Ancella esce)

GABRIELE (va per uscire) Chi sia veder vogl’io… AMELIA (fermandolo)  

T’arresta.

PIETRO (inchinandosi ad Amelia)   Il Doge dalle cacce tornando di Savona questa magion visitar brama. AMELIA  

Il puote.

(Pietro parte.) Scena IV Gabriele ed Amelia.

GABRIELE Il Doge qui? AMELIA  

Mia destra a chieder viene.

GABRIELE Per chi? AMELIA   Pel favorito suo. D’Andrea vola in cerca… T’affretta… va’… prepara il rito nuzial… mi guida all’ara. Amelia, gabriele Sì, sì dell’ara il giubilo[11] contrasti il fato avverso, e tutto l’universo io sfiderò con te. Innamorato anelito è del destin più forte, 94

act one (Exit Servant.)

Gabriele (about to go) I want to see who it is… Amelia (stopping him)  

Stay.

Pietro (bowing to Amelia)   The Doge, returning from hunting in Savona, asks if he may visit this house. Amelia  

He is welcome.

(Exit Pietro.) Scene IV Gabriele and Amelia.

Gabriele The Doge here? Amelia  

He comes to seek my hand.

Gabriele For whom? Amelia   For his favourite… Hurry and find Andrea… Quickly… get ready for our marriage… lead me to the altar. Amelia and Gabriele Yes, let the joy of marriage [11] be set against unkind fate, and with you I will defy the whole world. The force of love is stronger than destiny; 95

Simon Boccanegra

amanti oltre la morte sempre vivrai con me. (Amelia entra nel palazzo.) Scena V Gabriele va per uscire dalla destra e incontra Andrea. 2

GABRIELE (Propizio giunge Andrea!) ANDREA   qui?

Sì mattutino

GABRIELE   A dirti… ANDREA  

Che ami Amelia.

GABRIELE Tu che lei vegli con paterna cura a nostre nozze assenti? ANDREA   Alto mistero sulla vergine incombe. GABRIELE  

E qual?

ANDREA   forse tu più non l’amerai.

Se parlo

GABRIELE   Non teme ombra d’arcani l’amor mio! T’ascolto. ANDREA 3 Amelia tua d’umile stirpe nacque. 96

act one

we shall always be together, lovers beyond death. (Amelia goes into the palace.) Scene V Gabriele, making to leave right, meets Fiesco. 2

Gabriele (Andrea comes at the right moment!) ANDREA   Why?

You here so early?

Gabriele   To tell you… ANDREA  

That you love Amelia.

Gabriele You who watch over her with a father’s care, will you consent to our marriage? ANDREA   hangs over her. Gabriele  

A deep mystery

What is it?

ANDREA   If I tell you, perhaps you will no longer love her. Gabriele   My love has no fear of shadowy mysteries! I am listening. ANDREA 3 Your Amelia is of humble birth. 97

Simon Boccanegra

GABRIELE La figlia dei Grimaldi! ANDREA   No – la figlia dei Grimaldi morì tra consacrate vergini in Pisa. Un’orfana raccolta nel chiostro il dì che fu d’Amelia estremo ereditò sua cella… GABRIELE Ma come de’ Grimaldi anco il nome prendea? ANDREA   De’ fuorusciti perseguia le ricchezze il nuovo Doge; e la mentita Amelia alla rapace man sottrarle potea. GABRIELE  

L’orfana adoro!

ANDREA Di lei se’ degno. GABRIELE  

A me fia dunque unita?

ANDREA 4 In terra e in ciel! GABRIELE  

Ah! tu mi dai la vita.

ANDREA Vieni a me, ti benedico[12] nella pace di quest’ora, lieto vivi e fido adora l’angiol tuo, la patria, il ciel! 98

act one

Gabriele The daughter of the Grimaldi! ANDREA   No… the daughter of the Grimaldi family died in a convent in Pisa. An orphan found in the cloister the day Amelia died inherited her cell… Gabriele But why did she also take the name of Grimaldi?… ANDREA   The new Doge hankered after the riches of the exiles; and the false Amelia could save them from his rapacious hands. Gabriele  

I love this orphan!

ANDREA You are worthy of her. Gabriele  

May we be united?

ANDREA 4 On earth and in heaven! Gabriele  

You give me life!

ANDREA Come to me: I give you my blessing [12] in the peace of this hour, live in happiness, and faithfully love your angel, your country, your God! 99

Simon Boccanegra

GABRIELE Eco pia del tempo antico,[13] la tua voce è un casto incanto; serberà ricordo santo de’ tuoi detti il cor fedel. (Squilli di trombe.)

Ecco il Doge. Partiam. Ch’ei non ti scorga. ANDREA Ah! presto il dì della vendetta sorga! (Partono.) Scena VI Doge, Paolo e seguito, poi Amelia dal palazzo.

DOGE Paolo. PAOLO   Signor. DOGE   Ci spronano gli eventi, Di qua partir convien. PAOLO   Doge   dell’ora.

Quando? Allo squillo

(Ad un cenno del Doge il corteggio s’avvia dalla destra.)

PAOLO (nell’atto di partire scorge Amelia)   (Oh qual beltà!)

100

act one

Gabriele Holy echo of ancient times, [13] your words cast a pure spell; my faithful heart will hold sacred the memory of this hour. (Trumpets are heard.)

The Doge is coming. Let us go. He must not see you. ANDREA Ah! Let the day of vengeance dawn soon! (Exeunt.) Scene VI The Doge, Paolo and followers, then Amelia from the palace.

Doge Paolo. Paolo   My lord. Doge   Events are pressing, we shall have to leave. Paolo   Doge   of the hour.

When? On the stroke

(At a sign from the Doge the group goes off to the right.)

Paolo (seeing Amelia as he is leaving)   (Oh how beautiful!)

101

Simon Boccanegra Scena VII Amelia e il Doge

DOGE   ad Amelia Grimaldi?

Favella il Doge

AMELIA Così nomata sono. DOGE E gli esuli fratelli tuoi non punge Desio di patria? AMELIA  

Possente… ma…

DOGE   Intendo… A me inchinarsi sdegnano i Grimaldi… Così risponde a tanto orgoglio il Doge… (Le porge un foglio.)

AMELIA (leggendo)  

Che veggo! il lor perdono?

DOGE E denno a te della clemenza il dono. Dinne, perché in quest’eremo[14] tanta beltà chiudesti? Del mondo mai le fulgide lusinghe non piangesti? Il tuo rossor mel dice… AMELIA T’inganni, io son felice… DOGE Agli anni tuoi l’amore… 102

act one Scene VII Amelia and the Doge.

Doge   Amelia Grimaldi?

Is the Doge addressing

Amelia That is what I am called. Doge And are your exiled brothers not haunted By desire for their homeland? Amelia  

Indeed… but…

Doge   The Grimaldi disdain to bow to me… This is how the Doge answers such pride.

I understand…

(He hands her a paper.)

Amelia (Reading)  

What do I see? their pardon?

Doge This gift of clemency is due to you. Tell me, why do you hide [14] such beauty in this seclusion? Do you never pine for the glittering attractions of the world? Your blushes answer me… Amelia You are wrong; I am happy… Doge At your age, love… 103

Simon Boccanegra

AMELIA Ah mi leggesti in core! Amo uno spirto angelico che ardente mi riama… Ma di me acceso, un perfido, l’or dei Grimaldi brama… DOGE Paolo! AMELIA   Quel vil nomasti! E poiché tanta pietà ti muove dei destini miei, vo’ svelarti il segreto che mi ammanta… Non sono una Grimaldi!… DOGE  

Oh ! ciel… chi sei?…

AMELIA Orfanella il tetto umìle[15] m’accogliea d’una meschina, dove presso alla marina sorge Pisa… DOGE  

In Pisa tu?

AMELIA Grave d’anni quella pia era solo a me sostegno; io provai del ciel lo sdegno, colla tremola sua mano involata ella mi fu. Pinta effigie mi porgea, le sembianze esser dicea della madre ignota a me. Mi baciò, mi benedisse, levò al ciel, pregando, i rai… Quante volte la chiamai l’eco sol risposta diè. 104

act one

Amelia Ah, you have read my heart! I love a pure soul who ardently returns my love… But a miscreant who desires me hankers after the Grimaldis’ wealth. Doge Paolo! Amelia   You have named the villain… And since you show such concern for my future, I will tell you the secret which cloaks me… I am not a Grimaldi! Doge  

Heavens!… who are you?.

Amelia The lowly roof of a poor woman [15] sheltered me as an orphan, where Pisa rises near the sea… Doge  

In Pisa, you?

Amelia That good woman, heavy with years, was my only support; I felt Heaven’s wrath, and she was taken from me. With a trembling hand she gave me a painted miniature and said it was the likeness of the mother I had never known. She kissed me and blessed me, and raised her eyes to heaven in prayer… To all my cries to her echo alone gave answer. 105

Simon Boccanegra

DOGE (tra sé) (Se la speme, o ciel clemente, ch’or sorride all’alma mia, fosse sogno! estinto io sia della larva al disparir!) AMELIA Come tetro a me dolente s’appressava l’avvenir![16] DOGE Dinne… alcun là non vedesti? AMELIA Uom di mar noi visitava… DOGE E Giovanna si nomava lei che i fati a te rapîr? AMELIA: Sì. DOGE   E l’effigie non somiglia questa? (Trae dal seno un ritratto, lo porge ad Amelia, che fa altrettanto.)

AMELIA Uguali son! DOGE  

Maria!

AMELIA  

Il nome mio!

DOGE Sei mia figlia.

106

act one

Doge (to himself) (Merciful Heaven, if the hope which now smiles upon my soul be a dream!… Let me die if that delusion should vanish!) Amelia How dark a future loomed up before me in my grief![16] Doge Tell me… did no one see you there? Amelia A seaman used to visit us… Doge And was Giovanna the name of the woman fate snatched from you? Amelia Yes. Doge   And was the portrait like this? (He draws a locket from his breast and hands it to Amelia, who does likewise.)

Amelia They are the same! Doge  

Maria!

Amelia  

My name!

Doge You are my daughter.

107

Simon Boccanegra

AMELIA   Io… DOGE   M’abbraccia, o figlia mia. AMELIA Padre, padre il cor ti chiama! Stringi al sen Maria che t’ama. DOGE Figlia! a tal nome palpito[17] qual se m’aprisse i cieli… Un mondo d’ineffabili letizie a me riveli; qui un paradiso il tenero padre ti schiuderà… Di mia corona il raggio la gloria tua sarà. AMELIA Padre, vedrai la vigile[18] figlia a te sempre accanto; nell’ora malinconica asciugherò il tuo pianto… Avrem gioie romite 5 soltanto note al ciel, io la colomba mite sarò del regio ostel. (Amelia, accompagnata dal padre fino alla soglia, entra nel palazzo; il Doge la contempla estatico mentre ella si allontana.) Scena VIII Doge e Paolo dalla destra. PAOLO (entra rapidamente) Che rispose? DOGE   Rinunzia ogni speranza. PAOLO Doge, nol posso! 108

act one

Amelia   I… Doge   Embrace me, my daughter. Amelia Father, father, my heart calls to you! Clasp to your heart Maria, who loves you. Doge Daughter! at that name I tremble [17] as if heaven had opened to me… You reveal to me a world of unspeakable joy; your loving father will create a paradise for you… The lustre of my crown will be your glory. Amelia Father, you shall see your watchful daughter [18] always near you; in your darkest hour I will wipe away your tears… we shall taste undiscovered joys 5 known only to heaven; I will be the dove of peace of your royal palace. (Amelia, accompanied by her father to the threshold, goes into the palace; the Doge gazes after her in ecstasy as she disappears.) Scene VIII The Doge, and Paolo from the right. Paolo (rushing in) What was her answer? Doge   Give up all hope. Paolo My lord, I cannot! 109

Simon Boccanegra

DOGE  

Il voglio.

(Parte.)

PAOLO Il vuoi!… scordasti che mi devi il soglio? Scena IX Paolo e Pietro dalla destra

PIETRO Che disse? PAOLO  

A me negolla.

PIETRO Che pensi tu? PAOLO  

Rapirla.

PIETRO Come? PAOLO   Sul lido a sera la troverai solinga. Si tragga al mio naviglio; di Lorenzin si rechi alla magion. PIETRO  

S’ei nega?

PAOLO Digli che so sue trame, e presterammi aita… Tu gran mercede avrai… 110

act one

Doge  

It is my will.

(He leaves.)

Paolo Your will!… Have you forgotten that you owe your throne to me? Scene IX Paolo, and Pietro from the right.

Pietro What did he say? Paolo  

He will not let me have her.

Pietro What will you do? Paolo  

Abduct her.

Pietro How? Paolo   On the shore in the evening you will find her unattended… Carry her to my ship; take her to the house of Lorenzin. Pietro  

And if he objects?

Paolo Say that I know about his plotting, and he will lend me his aid… You will be well rewarded… 111

Simon Boccanegra

PIETRO Ella sarà rapita. (Escono.) Scena X 6 Doge, Consiglieri, Consoli del mare, Paolo e Pietro, un Araldo. Sala del Consiglio nel Palazzo degli Abati. Il Doge seduto sul seggio ducale; da un lato, dodici Consiglieri nobili; dall’altro lato, dodici Consiglieri popolani. Seduti a parte, quattro Consoli del mare e i Connestabili. Paolo e Pietro stanno sugli ultimi seggi dei popolani. Un araldo.[19]

DOGE Messeri, il re di Tartaria vi porge pegni di pace e ricchi doni e annunzia schiuso l’Eusin alle ligùri prore. Acconsentite? TUTTI:  

Sì.

DOGE   Ma d’altro voto più generoso io vi richiedo. ALCUNI  

Parla.

DOGE La stessa voce che tuonò su Rienzi; vaticinio di gloria e poi di morte, or su Genova tuona. Ecco un messaggio (mostrando uno scritto)

del romito di Sorga, ei per Venezia supplica pace… 112

act one

Pietro She shall be taken. (Exeunt.) Scena X 6 The Doge, Councillors, Maritime Consuls, Paolo, Pietro, a Herald. The Council Chamber in the Doge’s palace. The Doge, seated on his throne; on one side twelve Councillors from the nobles, on the other twelve Councillors from the commoners. Seated apart, four Maritime Consuls and the Constables. Paolo and Pietro are on the rear benches of the commoners. A herald. [19]

Doge Gentlemen, the King of Tartary sends you pledges of peace and rich gifts, announcing that the Black Sea is open to our Ligurian ships. Do you accept them? All  

Yes.

Doge   And now I ask of you another more generous vote. The rest  

Speak.

Doge The same voice that thundered a prophecy of glory and then of death on Rienzi now thunders on Genoa. Here is a message (showing a document)

from Petrarch, the hermit of Sorga; he pleads for peace with Venice… 113

Simon Boccanegra

PAOLO (interrompendolo)   Attenda alle sue rime il cantor della bionda Avignonese. TUTTI (ferocemente) Guerra a Venezia! DOGE   E con quest’urlo atroce fra due liti d’Italia erge Caino la sua clava cruenta! Adria e Liguria hanno patria comune. TUTTI   Genova.

È nostra patria

(Tumulto lontano.)[20a]

PIETRO   Qual clamor! ALCUNI  

D’onde tai grida?

PAOLO (balzando e dopo essere accorso al verone) Dalla piazza de’ Fieschi. TUTTI (alzandosi)  

Una sommossa!

PAOLO (sempre alla finestra, lo ha raggiunto Pietro) Ecco una turba di fuggenti. DOGE  

Ascolta.

(Il tumulto si fa più forte.)

PAOLO (origliando) Si sperdon le parole… 114

act one

Paolo (interrupting him)   Let the singer of the blonde Avignonese look after his rhymes. All (ferociously) War on Venice! Doge   And with this hideous cry Cain raises his blood-stained club between two Italian shores! Adria and Liguria have a common homeland. All   is Genoa.

Our homeland

(Distant tumult.) [20a]

Pietro  

What is that uproar?

The rest  

Whence come those cries?

Paolo (leaping up and running to the balcony) From the Fieschi palace. All (standing up)  

A rebellion!

Paolo (still at the window, where Pietro has joined him) See, a crowd fleeing. Doge  

Listen.

(The tumult becomes louder.)

Paolo (listening) I cannot catch the words… 115

Simon Boccanegra

VOCI INTERNE   TUTTI  

Morte! Morte!

PAOLO, PIETRO È lui? DOGE (che ha udito ed è presso al verone)   Chi? PIETRO  

Guarda.

DOGE (guardando)   Ciel! Gabriele Adorno dalla plebe assalito… accanto ad esso combatte un Guelfo. A me un araldo. PIETRO (sommesso)   fuggi o sei côlto.)

(Paolo,

DOGE (guardando Paolo che s’avvia)   Consoli del mare, custodite le soglie! Olà, chi fugge è un traditor. (Paolo confuso s’arresta.)

VOCI (in piazza)   Morte ai patrizi! CONSIGLIERI NOBILI (sguainando le spade)   All’armi! VOCI (in piazza) Viva il popolo! CONSIGLIERI POPOLANI (sguainando le spade)   Evviva! 116

act one

Voices (within)  

Death!

All  

Death!

Paolo, Pietro Is it he? Doge (who has heard and is near the window)   Who? Pietro  

Look.

Doge (looking)   Heavens! Gabriele Adorno pursued by a mob… and a Guelf fighting beside him. Summon a herald. Pietro (quietly)   flee or you will be caught.)

(Paolo,

Doge (watching Paolo, who is leaving)   Maritime Consuls, guard the doors! Anyone who flees is a traitor. (Paolo halts, confused.)

Voices (in the square)   Death to the patricians! Noble councillors (drawing their swords)   To arms! Voices (in the square) Long live the people! Plebeian councillors (drawing their swords)   Hurrah! 117

Simon Boccanegra

DOGE   E che? voi pure? Voi, qui! vi provocate? VOCI (in piazza)  

Morte al Doge.

DOGE (ergendosi con possente alterezza; sarà giunto l’araldo) Morte al Doge? sta ben. Tu, araldo, schiudi le porte del palagio e annuncia al volgo gentilesco e plebeo ch’io non lo temo, che le minaccie udii, che qui li attendo. (ai Consiglieri, che ubbidiscono)

Nelle guaine i brandi. VOCI (in piazza)   Fuoco alle case! ALTRE VOCI  

Armi! saccheggio![20b]

Ai trabocchi!

ALTRE  

Alla gogna!

(Una tromba lontana. Tutti stanno attenti origliando. Silenzio.)

DOGE Squilla la tromba dell’araldo… ei parla… (Silence.)

Tutto è silenzio… UNO SCOPPIO DI GRIDA   Evviva! VOCI:(più vicine)  

Evviva il Doge!

DOGE Ecco le plebi! 118

act one

Doge   You! challenge me, here? Voices (in the square)  

What? You too?

Death to the Doge!

Doge (rising with great dignity: the herald has arrived) Death to the Doge? Very well. You, herald, open the palace door and tell the crowd, nobles and plebeians, that I do not fear them, that I have heard their threats and that I await them. (to the Councillors, who obey)

Sheathe your swords. Voices (in the square)   Arms! Booty! [20b] Burn the houses! Other voices   Down with them! Others  

To the pillory!

(A distant trumpet. All stand waiting, listening.)

Doge The herald’s trumpet sounds… he is speaking… (Silence.)

Everything is quiet…. A Cry   Voices (nearer)  

Hurrah! Long live the Doge!

Doge Here comes the mob! 119

Simon Boccanegra Scena XI Popolo, Consiglieri, Doge, Paolo, Pietro, Adorno, Fiesco. Irrompe la folla dei popolani, i Consiglieri, ecc., ecc, molte donne, alcuni fanciulli, il Doge, Paolo, Pietro. I Consiglieri nobili sempre divisi dai popopolani. Adorno e Fiesco afferrati dal popolo.

POPOLO   Vendetta! vendetta! Spargasi il sangue del fiero uccisor! DOGE (ironicamente) Quest’è dunque del popolo la voce? Da lungi tuono d’uragan, da presso gridio di donne e di fanciulli. Adorno, perché impugni l’acciar? GABRIELE   Lorenzino. POPOLO  

Ho trucidato

Assassin!

GABRIELE   avea rapita. DOGE  

Ei la Grimaldi

(Orror!)

POPOLO  

Menti!

GABRIELE   Quel vile pria di morir disse che un uom possente al crimine l’ha spinto. PIETRO (a Paolo)  

(Ah! sei scoperto!) 120

act one Scene XI Crowd, Councillors, the Doge, Paolo, Pietro, Adorno, Fiesco. The crowd bursts in, Councillors, etc., many women, some children, the Doge, Paolo, Pietro. The noble Councillors still separated from the plebeian. Adorno and Fiesco seized by the people.

Populace   Vengeance! Vengeance! Let us spill the blood of the arrogant murderer! Doge (ironically) Is this then the voice of the people? from afar the thunder of the tempest, from nearby the cries of women and children. Adorno, why is your sword in your hand? Gabriele   Lorenzino.

I have killed

Populace   Assassin! Gabriele   He had abducted Amelia Grimaldi. Doge   Populace  

(Horror!) Liar!

Gabriele   Before he died the villain said that a man of power had urged him to the crime. Pietro (to Paolo)  

(Ah! you are discovered!) 121

Simon Boccanegra

DOGE (con agitazione) E il nome suo? GABRIELE (fissando il Doge con tremenda ironia)   T’acqueta! il reo si spense pria di svelarlo. DOGE  

Che vuoi dir?

GABRIELE (terribilmente)   Uom possente tu se’! DOGE (a Gabriele)  

Pel cielo!

Ribaldo!

GABRIELE (al Doge slanciandosi)   Audace rapitor di fanciulle! ALCUNI  

Si disarmi!

GABRIELE (Disvincolandosi e correndo per ferire il Doge) Empio corsaro incoronato! muori! Scena XII Amelia e detti

AMELIA (entrando ed interponendosi fra i due assalitori e il Doge) Ferisci! DOGE, FIESCO, GABRIELE   Amelia! TUTTI  

Amelia! 122

act one

Doge (in agitation) And his name? Gabriele (gazing at the Doge with heavy irony)   Be easy! The criminal died before revealing it. Doge  

What do you mean?

Gabriele (fiercely)   You are a man of power! Doge (to Gabriele)  

By Heaven!

How dare you!

Gabriele (hurling himself forward)   of young girls!

Shameless abductor

Councillors   Disarm him! Gabriele (breaking free and rushing to stab the Doge) Vile upstart corsair, die! Scene XII Amelia and the above.

Amelia (entering and throwing herself between the two assailants and the Doge) Stab me! Doge, Fiesco, Gabriele   Amelia! ALL  

Amelia! 123

Simon Boccanegra

AMELIA   salva l’Adorno tu.

O Doge… ah salva…

DOGE (alle guardie che si sono impossessate di Gabriele per disarmarlo)   Nessun l’offenda. Cade l’orgoglio e al suon del suo dolore tutta l’anima mia parla d’amore… Amelia, di’ come tu fosti rapita e come al periglio potesti campar. AMELIA Nell’ora soave che all’estasi invita[21] soletta men givo sul lido del mar. Mi cingon tre sgherri, m’accoglie un naviglio. POPOLO Orror! AMELIA   Soffocati non valsero i gridi… Io svenni e al novello dischiuder del ciglio Lorenzo in sue stanze presente mi vidi… TUTTI Lorenzo! AMELIA   Mi vidi prigion dell’infame! Io ben di quell’alma sapea la viltà. Al Doge, gli dissi, fien note tue trame, se a me sull’istante non dai libertà. Confuso di tema, mi schiuse le porte… Salvarmi l’audace minaccia potea. TUTTI Ei ben meritava, quell’empio, la morte. AMELIA V’è un più nefando che illeso ancor sta. 124

act one

Amelia   O spare Adorno.

O my lord… spare…

Doge (to the guards who have seized Gabriele to disarm him)   Let no one harm him. My pride falls from me, and at the sound of her distress my whole soul speaks of love… Amelia, tell how you were abducted and how you escaped from danger. Amelia At the sweet hour which invites ecstasy [21] I was walking alone by the seashore. Three ruffians seized me, and a ship carried me off. Populace What horror! Amelia   My stifled cries were of no avail… I fainted, and when I opened my eyes again I found myself with Lorenzo in his rooms… ALL Lorenzo! Amelia   I saw myself that villain’s prisoner! But I well knew the baseness of his spirit, and said, ‘The Doge shall know of your plot if you do not release me this instant.’ Shaken by fear, he unlocked the doors… My desperate threat had saved me… ALL The scoundrel well deserved to die. Amelia There is one still more guilty here who goes unpunished. 125

Simon Boccanegra

TUTTI Chi dunque? Amelia (fissando Paolo, che sta dietro a un gruppo di persone)   Ei m’ascolta… discerno le smorte sue labbra. Doge, Gabriele   Chi dunque? POPOLANI (minacciosi)   Un patrizio. NobILI (minacciosi)  

Un plebeo.

POPOLANI (ai nobili) Abbasso le spade! Amelia  

Terribili gridi!

NobILI (ai popolani) Abbasso le scuri! Amelia  

Pietà!

DOGE (possentemente)   Fratricidi! Plebe! Patrizi! Popolo[22] dalla feroce storia! Erede sol dell’odio dei Spinola e dei D’Oria, mentre v’invita estatico il regno ampio dei mari, voi nei fraterni lari vi lacerate il cor. Piango su voi, sul placido raggio del vostro clivo, là dove invan germoglia il ramo dell’ulivo. 126

act one

ALL Who is he? Amelia (looking at Paolo, who is standing behind a group of people)   He can hear me and I can see his ashen lips. Doge and Gabriele   Then who is he? Plebeians (menacingly)  

A patrician.

Nobles (menacingly)  

A plebeian.

Plebeians (to the nobles) Put up your swords! Amelia  

What dreadful cries!

Nobles (to the plebeians) Put down your axes! Amelia  

For pity’s sake!

Doge (powerfully)   Fratricides! Plebeians! Patricians! Heirs [22] to a fierce history! Inheritors only of the hatred of the Spinola and Doria families, while the broad kingdom of the seas invites you to glory, here brother turns against brother and you tear at each other’s heart. I weep for you, for the peaceful sun on your hillsides, where the olive branches bloom in vain. 127

Simon Boccanegra

Piango sulla mendace festa dei vostri fior, e vo gridando: pace![23] e vo gridando: amor! AMELIA (a Fiesco) (Pace! lo sdegno immenso[24] raffrena per pietà! Pace! t’ispiri un senso di patria carità.) PIETRO (a Paolo) (Tutto fallì, la fuga sia tua salvezza almen.) PAOLO (a Pietro) (No, l’angue che mi fruga è gonfio di velen.) GABRIELE (Amelia è salva, e m’ama! sia ringraziato il ciel! Disdegna ogni altra brama l’animo mio fedel.) FIESCO (O patria! a qual mi serba vergogna il mio sperar! Sta la città superba nel pugno d’un corsar!) CORO (fissando il Doge) Il suo commosso accento sa l’ira in noi calmar; vol di soave vento che rasserena il mar. GABRIELE (offrendo la spada al Doge) Ecco la spada. 128

act one

I weep for the deceptive gaiety of your flowers, and I cry ‘Peace!’ [23] I cry ‘Love!’ Amelia (to Fiesco) (Peace! I beg you [24] to restrain your terrible wrath! Peace! Let a feeling of love for your country inspire you.) Pietro (to Paolo) (Everything has failed: you can only seek safety in flight.) Paolo (to Pietro) (No, the serpent that impels me is swollen with poison.) Gabriele (Amelia is safe, and she loves me! Heaven be thanked! My faithful heart knows no other desire.) Fiesco (O my country! To what shame my hopes have led me! This proud city lies in the hands of a pirate!) Chorus (looking at the Doge) His heartfelt words have the power to calm our anger, like the breath of a soft wind which stills the troubled sea. Gabriele (offering his sword to the Doge) Here is my sword. 129

Simon Boccanegra

DOGE   Questa notte sola Qui prigione sarai, finché la trama Tutta si scopra. No, l’altera lama serba, non voglio che la tua parola. GABRIELE E sia! DOGE (con forza terribile)   Paolo! PAOLO (sbucando dalla folla allibito)   Mio Duce![25] DOGE (con tremenda maestà e con violenza sempre più formidabile)   In te risiede l’austero dritto popolar; è accolto l’onore cittadin nella tua fede: bramo l’ausiglio tuo… V’è in queste mura un vil che m’ode e impallidisce in volto, già la mia man lo afferra per le chiome. Io so il suo nome… È nella sua paura. Tu al cospetto del ciel e al mio cospetto sei testimon. Sul manigoldo impuro piombi il tuon del mio detto: (con immensa forza)

‘Sia maledetto!’ E tu ripeti il giuro.[26] PAOLO (atterrito e tremante) ‘Sia maledetto…’ (Orror!) TUTTI ‘Sia maledetto!’

130

act one

Doge   For tonight only you will be a prisoner, until the whole plot is unmasked. No, keep your proud sword; I ask only for your word. Gabriele So be it! Doge (with terrible force)   Paolo! Paolo (emerging from the crowd, in terror)   My lord! [25] Doge (with great majesty and ever-increasing ferocity)   In you is vested the people’s strict law; the city’s honour depends on your loyalty: I need your aid… Within these walls there is a villain who hears me and grows pale; my hand is already reaching for his head. I know his name… He will be afraid. You, in the sight of heaven and in my sight, are witness. Let the thunder of my words fall on the wicked scoundrel: (with immense force)

‘May he be accursed!’ Repeat that oath. [26] Paolo (terrified and trembling) ‘May he be accursed…’ (O horror!) All ‘May he be accursed!’

131

ATTO SECONDO

Scena I Paolo e Pietro Stanza del Doge nel Palazzo Ducale in Genova. Porte laterali. Da un poggiolo si vede la città. Un tavolo: un ‘anfora e una tazza. Annotta.

PAOLO (a Pietro, traendolo verso il poggiolo) Quei due vedesti? PIETRO:  

Sì.

PAOLO   Li traggi tosto dal carcer loro per l’andito ascoso, che questa chiave schiuderà. PIETRO  

T’intesi.

(Esce) Scena II  7 Paolo.

PAOLO Me stesso ho maledetto! E l’anatèma m’insegue ancor… e l’aura ancor ne trema! Vilipeso… reietto 132

ACT TWO

Scene I Paolo and Pietro.) The Doge’s quarters in the Ducal Palace in Genoa. Doors at each side. From a balcony the city can be seen. A table, with a carafe and a goblet. Night is falling.

Paolo (to Pietro, drawing him towards the balcony) Did you see the two of them? Pietro  

Yes.

Paolo   Bring them at once from their cell by the secret passage which this key will unlock. Pietro  

I understand.

(Exit.) Scene II  7 Paolo.

Paolo I have cursed myself! And that curse still pursues me… the air trembles with it! Despised… rejected 133

Simon Boccanegra

dal Senato e da Genova, qui vibro l’ultimo strai pria di fuggir, qui libro La sorte tua, Doge, in quest’ansia estrema. Tu, che m’offendi e che mi devi il trono, qui t’abbandono al tuo destino in questa ora fatale… (Estrae un’ampolla, ne vuota il contenuto nella tazza)

Qui ti stillo una lenta, atra agonia… Là t’armo un assassino. Scelga morte sua via fra il tosco ed il pugnale. Scena III Paolo, Fiesco e Gabriele dalla destra, condotti da Pietro, che si ritira

FIESCO Prigioniero in qual loco m’adduci?[27] PAOLO Nelle stanze del Doge, e favella a te Paolo. FIESCO  8  

I tuoi sguardi son truci…

PAOLO Io so l’odio che celasi in te. Tu m’ascolta. FIESCO  

Che brami?

PAOLO   Al cimento preparasti de’ Guelfi la schiera? FIESCO Sì. 134

act two

by the Senate and by Genoa, here I string my last arrow before fleeing; here I weigh your fate, Doge, in this last fearful moment. You who spurn me but to whom you owe your throne, I here abandon you to your destiny in this fateful hour… (He takes out a phial and empties its contents into the goblet.)

Here I prepare a slow, hideous agony… There I arm an assassin. Let Death take its choice between the poison and the dagger. Scene III The above, Fiesco and Gabriele led in from the right by Pietro, who withdraws.

Fiesco Where have I been led as a prisoner? [27] Paolo To the Doge’s quarters and Paolo speaks to you. Fiesco  8  

Your looks are grim…

Paolo I know the hatred you hide within you. Listen to me. Fiesco  

What do you want?

Paolo   You have prepared a body of Guelfs for rebellion? FIESCO Yes. 135

Simon Boccanegra

PAOLO   Ma vano fia tanto ardimento! Questo Doge, abborrito da me quanto voi l’abborrite, v’appresta Nuovo scempio. FIESCO  

Mi tendi un agguato.

PAOLO Un agguato? Di Fiesco la testa il tiranno segnata non ha? Io t’insegno vittoria. FIESCO  

A qual patto?

PAOLO Trucidarlo qui, mentre egli dorme. FIESCO Osi a Fiesco proporre un misfatto? PAOLO Tu rifiuti? FIESCO:   PAOLO  9  

Sì. Al carcer ten va.

(Fiesco parte dalla destra; Gabriele fa per seguirlo, ma è arrestato da Paolo.) Scena IV Paolo e Gabriele.

PAOLO Udisti? 136

act two

Paolo   But your daring may be in vain! This Doge, whom I hate as much as you do, is preparing for a new slaughter. Fiesco  

You are setting a snare for me.

Paolo A snare? Has the tyrant not already demanded Fiesco’s head? I will show you the way to victory. – Fiesco  

On what terms?

Paolo Kill him while he is asleep… Fiesco You dare suggest a crime to Fiesco? Paolo You refuse? Fiesco   Paolo  9  

Yes. Then back to your cell.

(Fiesco goes off to the right; Gabriele starts to follow him but is stopped by Paolo.) Scene IV Paolo and Gabriele.

Paolo You heard that? 137

Simon Boccanegra

GABRIELE   Vil disegno! PAOLO Amelia dunque mai tu non amasti? GABRIELE Che dici? PAOLO   GABRIELE  

È qui. Qui Amelia!

PAOLO   E del vegliardo segno è alle infami dilettanze. GABRIELE   dimon, cessa…

Astuto

(Paolo corre a chiuder la porta di destra)

 

Che fai?

PAOLO Da qui ogni varco t’è conteso. Ardisci il colpo… o sepoltura avrai fra queste mura. (Parte frettoloso dalla porta sinistra, che si chiude dentro.) Scena V Gabriele.

GABRIELE (solo) O inferno! Amelia qui! L’ama il vegliardo! E il furor che m’accende m’è conteso sfogar! Tu m’uccidesti il padre… tu m’involi il mio tesoro… 138

act two

Gabriele  

A cowardly plan!

Paolo Then you never loved Amelia? Gabriele What are you saying? Paolo  

She is here.

Gabriele  

Amelia here!

Paolo   for the old man’s infamous pleasures. Gabriele   insidious demon…

And intended

Silence,

(Paolo runs to close the door on the right.)

 

What are you doing?

Paolo Every exit from here is closed to you. Dare to strike the blow… or you shall be buried within these walls. (Exit hurriedly by the door on the left, which closes behind him.) Scene V Gabriele.

Gabriele (alone) O hell! Amelia here! The old man loves her! And I cannot vent the fury which inflames me!… You killed my father… now you steal my treasure… 139

Simon Boccanegra

Trema, iniquo… già troppa era un’offesa, doppia vendetta hai sul tuo capo accesa. Sento avvampar nell’anima[28] furente gelosia; tutto il suo sangue spegnerne l’incendio non potria; s’ei mille vite avesse, se mieterle potesse d’un colpo il mio furor, non sarei sazio ancor. Che parlo! Ohimè! deliro… Piango! Pietà, gran Dio, del mio martiro! Cielo pietoso, rendila,[29] rendila a questo core, pura siccome l’angelo che veglia al suo pudore; ma se una nube impura tanto candor m’oscura, priva di sue virtù, ch’io non la vegga più. Scena VI Gabriele ed Amelia dalla sinistra.

AMELIA Tu qui?… GABRIELE   Amelia! AMELIA  

Chi il varco t’apria?

GABRIELE E tu come qui? AMELIA  

Io… 140

act two

Tremble, miscreant… one crime was already too much, now you have called upon your head a double vengeance. I feel a fire of jealousy [28] blaze up in my breast; all his blood could not quench the flames; had he a thousand lives, which my fury could extinguish with a single blow, I still would not be satisfied. What am I saying!… Alas! I am raving… I am weeping! O God, have mercy on my torture! Merciful heaven, restore her, [29] restore her to my heart, as pure as the angel who guards her honour; but if a shameful cloud sullies her innocence and robs her of her virtue, may I never see her again. Scene VI The above, and Amelia from the left.

Amelia You here?… GABRIELE   Amelia  

Amelia! Who opened that passage to you?

Gabriele And how do you come here? Amelia  

I… 141

Simon Boccanegra

GABRIELE  

Ah sleale!

AMELIA Ah crudele!… GABRIELE  

Il tiranno ferale…

AMELIA Il rispetta… GABRIELE  

Egli t’ama…

AMELIA   santo…

D’amor

GABRIELE   E tu?… AMELIA  

L’amo al pari…

GABRIELE   né t’uccido?

E t’ascolto,

AMELIA   Infelice!… mel credi, pura io sono… GABRIELE  

Favella.

AMELIA   Concedi che il segreto non aprasi ancor. GABRIELE Parla, in tuo cor virgineo[30] fede al diletto rendi. 142

act two

Gabriele  

Faithless one!

Amelia How cruel!… Gabriele  

That savage tyrant…

Amelia Respect him… Gabriele  

He loves you…

Amelia   that is pure… Gabriele  

With a love

And you?

Amelia  

I love him similarly…

Gabriele   and do not kill you? Amelia   I am innocent… Gabriele  

I hear you,

Unhappy one!… believe me,

Explain yourself…

Amelia   my secret a little longer.

Let me keep

GABRIELE Speak, restore to your beloved [30] faith in your innocence of heart. 143

Simon Boccanegra

Il tuo silenzio è funebre vel che su me distendi. Dammi la vita o il feretro, sdegno la tua pietà. AMELIA Sgombra dall’alma il dubbio… Santa nel petto mio l’immagin tua s’accoglie come nel tempio Iddio. No, procellosa tenebra un ciel d’amor non ha. (S’ode uno squillo.)

Il Doge vien, scampo non hai, t’ascondi! GABRIELE No. AMELIA   Il patibol t’aspetta. GABRIELE  

Io non lo temo.

AMELIA Nell’ora stessa teco avrò morte… Se non ti move di me pietà. GABRIELE Di te pietade?… (Tra sé) (Lo vuol la sorte… Si compia il fato… Egli morrà…) (Amelia nasconde Gabriele sul poggiolo.) Scena VII Amelia e il Doge, ch’entra dalla destra leggendo un foglio.

DOGE Figlia!… 144

act two

Your silence is a shroud which you cast over me. Give me life or a hearse; I disdain your pity. Amelia Banish doubt from your soul… Your image is held as sacred in my heart as God is in church. No, the sky of love contains no storm clouds. (A trumpet fanfare is heard.)

The Doge is coming. You have no escape. Hide! Gabriele No. Amelia   The scaffold awaits you. Gabriele  

I do not fear it

Amelia If pity for me does not move you… I will die with you at the same moment. Gabriele Pity for you?… (to himself) (Fate has willed it… Let destiny be fulfilled… He shall die…) (Amelia hides Gabriele on the balcony.) Scene VII Amelia and the Doge, who enters right reading a document.)

Doge My daughter!… 145

Simon Boccanegra

AMELIA   Sì afflitto, o padre mio? DOGE   Ma tu piangevi. AMELIA  

T’inganni…

Io…

DOGE   La cagion m’è nota delle lagrime tue… Già mel dicesti… Ami; e se degno fia di te l’eletto del tuo core… AMELIA   O padre, fra’ Liguri il più prode, il più gentile… DOGE Il noma. AMELIA   Adorno… DOGE  

Il mio nemico!

AMELIA  

Padre!…

DOGE Vedi qui scritto il nome suo?… congiura coi Guelfi… AMELIA  

Ciel!… perdonagli!…

DOGE  

Nol posso. 146

act two

Amelia  

So careworn, father?

Doge   But you have been crying. Amelia  

You are mistaken…

I…

Doge   The reason for your tears is known to me… You have already told me… You are in love; well then, if the one to whom you have given your heart is worthy… AMELIA   the bravest and noblest of Genoese…

O father,

Doge His name? Amelia   Doge   Amelia  

Adorno… My enemy! Father!…

Doge You see his name written here?… he conspires with the Guelfs… Amelia  

O Heaven!… Forgive him!…

Doge  

I cannot. 147

Simon Boccanegra

AMELIA Con lui morrò… DOGE   L’ami cotanto? AMELIA   Io l’amo d’ardente, d’infinito amor.  10 O al tempio con lui mi guida, o sopra entrambi cada la scure del carnefice… DOGE   O crudele destino! O dileguate mie speranze! Una figlia ritrovo; ed un nemico a me la invola… Ascolta: S’ei ravveduto… AMELIA   Il fia… DOGE   Forse il perdono allor… AMELIA   Padre adorato!… DOGE   Ti ritraggi – attender qui degg’io l’aurora… AMELIA   Lascia ch’io vegli al fianco tuo… DOGE   No, ti ritraggi… AMELIA Padre!… DOGE   Il voglio… AMELIA (entrando a sinistra)   (Gran Dio! come salvarlo?) 148

act two

Amelia I shall die with him… Doge   You love him so much? Amelia   I love him with a burning, boundless love.  10 Either lead me to the altar with him or let the executioner’s axe fall on us both… Doge   O cruel destiny! O my vanished hopes! I find my daughter again, and a foe steals her from me… Listen: If he will repent… Amelia   He must. Doge   Perhaps pardon then… Amelia   O dearest father! Doge   Now leave me – I must wait here till morning… Amelia   Let me stay at your side… Doge   No, leave me… Amelia Father!… Doge   It is my wish… Amelia (leaving through the door on the left)   (Dear God! How can I save him?) 149

Simon Boccanegra Scena VIII Il Doge e Gabriele nascosto.

DOGE Doge! ancor proveran la tua clemenza i traditori? Di paura segno fôra il castigo. M’ardono le fauci. (Versa dall’anfora nella tazza e beve.)

Perfin l’onda del fonte è amara al labbro dell’uom che regna… O duol… la mente è oppressa… stanche le membra… ahimè… mi vince il sonno. (Siede.)

Oh! Amelia… ami… un nemico… (S’addormenta)

GABRIELE (entra con precauzione, s’avvicina al Doge e lo contempla)   Ei dorme! Quale Sento ritegno?… È reverenza o tema?… Vacilla il mio voler?… Tu dormi, o veglio, del padre mio carnefice, tu mio rival… Figlio d’Adorno!… la paterna ombra ti chiama vindice… (Brandisce un pugnale e va per trafiggere il Doge, ma Amelia, che era ritornata, va rapidamente a porsi tra esso ed il padre.) Scena IX Doge, Gabriele ed Amelia.

AMELIA   Insensato! Vecchio inerme il tuo braccio colpisce![31] GABRIELE Tua difesa mio sdegno raccende. 150

act two Scene VIII The Doge, and Gabriele hidden.

Doge Doge! Shall the traitors once more put your clemency to the test? Yet punishment could be a sign of fear. My throat burns. (He pours from the carafe into the goblet and drinks.)

Even water from the spring is bitter to the lips of one who wears a crown… O sorrow… my mind is heavy… My limbs are fatigued… Alas!… sleep overcomes me. (He sits down.)

Oh! Amelia… you love… an enemy… (He falls asleep.)

Gabriele (entering cautiously, approaching the Doge and gazing at him)   He is asleep! What holds me back?… Is it reverence or fear?… Is my will faltering?…You are asleep, old man, my father’s murderer, my rival… Son of Adorno… your father’s shade cries to you for vengeance… (He draws a dagger and is about to stab the Doge, but Amelia, returning, hurriedly puts herself between him and her father.) Scene IX The above and Amelia.

Amelia   Madman! Would you strike a defenceless old man? [31] Gabriele Your defence rekindles my fury. 151

Simon Boccanegra

AMELIA Santo, il giuro, è l’amor che ci unisce, né alle nostre speranze contende. GABRIELE Che favelli?… DOGE (destandosi)   Ah!… AMELIA   Nascondi il pugnale, vien… ch’ei t’oda… GABRIELE  

Prostrarmi al suo piede?

DOGE (entra improvvisamente fra loro, dicendo a Gabriele) Ecco il petto… colpisci, sleale! GABRIELE Sangue il sangue d’Adorno ti chiede. DOGE E fia ver?… chi t’aprì queste porte? AMELIA Non io. GABRIELE   Niun quest’arcano saprà. DOGE Il dirai fra tormenti… GABRIELE   La morte, tuoi supplizi non temo. AMELIA  

Ah pietà! 152

act two

Amelia I swear that the love which unites us is holy, and he does not oppose our hopes. Gabriele What do you mean?… Doge (awakening)  

Ah!…

Amelia   Put away your dagger, come… let him hear you… Gabriele  

Kneel at his feet?

Doge (suddenly coming between them, to Gabriele) Here is my breast… strike, traitor! Gabriele The blood of Adorno cries for blood. Doge Is that so?… Who opened these doors for you? Amelia Not I. Gabriele   No one shall know that secret. Doge You will reveal it under torture Gabriele   death or your torture. Amelia  

I do not fear

Have mercy! 153

Simon Boccanegra

DOGE Ah quel padre tu ben vendicasti, che da me contristato già fu… Un celeste tesor m’involasti… la mia figlia… GABRIELE   Suo padre sei tu? Perdón, Amelia – indomito,[32] geloso amor fu il mio… Doge, il velame squarciasi… un assassin son io… Dammi la morte; il ciglio[33] a te non oso alzar. AMELIA (Madre, che dall’empireo proteggi la tua figlia, del genitor all’anima meco pietà consiglia… Ei si rendea colpevole solo per troppo amor.) DOGE (Deggio salvarlo e stendere la mano all’inimico? Sì – pace splenda ai Liguri, si plachi l’odio antico; sia d’amistanze italiche il mio sepolcro altar.) CORO (interno) All’armi, all’armi, o Liguri,[34] patrio dover v’appella. Scoppiò dell’ira il folgore; e notte di procella. Le guelfe spade cingano di tirannia lo spalto; del coronato demone, su, alla magion, l’assalto. 154

act two

Doge Ah, you have indeed avenged that father who once fell at my hand… You have robbed me of a heavenly treasure… my daughter… Gabriele   You are her father? Forgive me, Amelia – fierce [32] and jealous was my love… Doge, let the veil be torn aside… I am an assassin… let me die; I do not dare [33] to raise my eyes to you. Amelia (Mother, you who from heaven protect your daughter, with me recommend pity to my father’s heart… His crime was caused only by too much love.) Doge (Should I spare him and extend my hand to my enemy? Yes – let peace shine on this city, let ancient hatred be appeased; let my tomb be the altar of Italian friendship.) Chorus (a long way off) To arms, to arms, men of Liguria, [34] patriotic duty calls you. The lightning of wrath has flared; this is a night of storm. Let Guelf swords surround the bastion of tyranny – arise, assault the palace of this crowned devil. 155

Simon Boccanegra

AMELIA (corre al poggiolo) Quai gridi?… GABRIELE  

I tuoi nemici…

DOGE  

Il so.

AMELIA   il popolo.

S’addensa

DOGE (a Gabriele)   T’unisci a’ tuoi… GABRIELE   contro di te?… mai più.

Che pugni

DOGE   Dunque messaggio ti reca a lor di pace, e il sole di domani non sorga a rischiarar fraterne stragi. GABRIELE Teco a pugnar ritorno, se la clemenza tua non li disarmi. DOGE (accennando Amelia) Sarà costei tuo premio. GABRIELE, AMELIA O inaspettata gioia! AMELIA  

O padre!

DOGE, GABRIELE (snudando le spade)   All’armi!

156

act two

Amelia (running to the balcony) What are those shouts?… Gabriele  

Your enemies.

Doge  

I know.

Amelia   is gathering.

The crowd

Doge (to Gabriele)   Join your comrades… Gabriele   against you?… never again.

I, fight

Doge   Then take a message of peace to them, and may tomorrow’s sun not rise to illuminate fraternal bloodshed. Gabriele I will return to fight with you, if your clemency does not disarm them. Doge (pointing to Amelia) She will be your reward. Gabriele and Amelia O unexpected joy! Amelia  

O Father!

Doge and Gabriele (drawing their swords)   To arms!

157

ATTO TERZO  11

Scena I Un capitano dei balestrieri, con Fiesco, dalla destra, poi dalla sinistra Paolo in mezzo alle guardie. Interno del Palazzo Ducale. Di prospetto grandi aperture dalle quali sorgerà Genova illuminata a festa: in fondo il mare.

GRIDA (interne) Evviva il Doge! ALTRE GRIDA   Vittoria! Vittoria! CAPITANO (rimettendo a Fiesco la sua spada) Libero sei: ecco la spada. FIESCO  

E i Guelfi?

CAPITANO Sconfitti. FIESCO  

O triste libertà!

(A Paolo)

  Dove sei tratto?

Che?… Paolo? 158

ACT THREE  11

Scene I A Captain of crossbowmen with Fiesco from the right; then, from the left, Paolo surrounded by guards. Interior of the Ducal Palace. Facing, large openings through which can be seen Genoa illuminated for a celebration; the sea in the background.

Shouts (from within) Long live the Doge! Other shouts  

Victory! Victory!

Captain (giving back to Fiesco his sword) You are free: here is your sword. Fiesco  

And the Guelfs?

Captain Defeated. Fiesco  

O bitter freedom!

(to Paolo)

  Where are they taking you?

What?… Paolo? 159

Simon Boccanegra

PAOLO (arrestandosi)   All’estremo supplizio. Il mio demonio mi cacciò fra l’armi[35] dei rivoltosi, e là fui côlto; ed ora mi condanna Simon; ma da me prima fu il Boccanegra condannato a morte. FIESCO Che vuoi dir? PAOLO   Un velen – più nulla io temo – gli divora la vita. FIESCO (a Paolo)   Infame! PAOLO   Ei forse già mi precede nell’avel! CORO INTERNO (Dal sommo delle sfere proteggili, o Signor; di pace sien foriere le nozze dell’amor) PAOLO   Ah! orrore! Quel canto nuzial, che mi persegue, l’odi?… in quel tempio Gabriello Adorno sposa colei ch’io trafugava… FIESCO (sguainando la spada)   Amelia? Tu fosti il rapitor? Mostro! PAOLO  

Ferisci.

FIESCO (trattenendosi) Non lo sperar; sei sacro alla bipenne. (Le guardie trascinano Paolo fuori di scena.) 160

act three  

Paolo (halting)   To death on the scaffold. My demon drove me to take up arms [35] with the rebels, and I was captured; and now Simon has condemned me; but I had already condemned Boccanegra to death. Fiesco What do you mean? Paolo   A poison – I have nothing more to fear now – is eating away his life. Fiesco (to Paolo)  

You monster!

Paolo   he is preceding me to the grave!

Perhaps

Offstage Chorus (From your throne in heaven protect them, O Lord; may these nuptials of love be harbingers of peace.) Paolo   O horror! Do you hear the wedding hymn that pursues me?… In that chapel Gabriele Adorno is being married to the girl I carried off… Fiesco (drawing his sword)   You were her abductor? Monster! Paolo  

Amelia?

Kill me.

Fiesco (restraining himself) Do not hope for that; you are promised to the headsman’s axe. (The guards take Paolo away.) 161

Simon Boccanegra Scena II Fiesco.

FIESCO (solo) Inorridisco!… No, Simon non questa vendetta chiesi, d’altra meta degno era il tuo fato. Eccolo… il Doge. Alfine è giunta l’ora di trovarci a fronte! (Si ritira in un angolo d’ombra.) Scena III Il Doge: lo precede il Capitano con un trombettiere; Fiesco in disparte.

CAPITANO (al verone) Cittadini! per ordine del Doge s’estinguano le faci e non s’offenda col clamor del trionfo i prodi estinti. (Esce seguito dal trombettiere.)

DOGE M’ardon le tempia… un’atra vampa sento[36 serpeggiar per le vene… Ah! ch’io respiri l’aura beata del libero cielo! Oh refrigerio!… la marina brezza!… Il mare!… il mare!… quale in rimirarlo[37] di glorie e di sublimi rapimenti mi si affaccian ricordi! Il mare!… il mare!… Perché in suo grembo non trovai la tomba?… FIESCO (avvicinandosi) Era meglio per te! DOGE  

Chi osò inoltrarsi?…

FIESCO Chi te non teme… 162

act three   Scene II Fiesco.

Fiesco (alone) I am horrified!… No, Simon, this was not the vengeance I sought: your life deserved a different end. Here he is… the Doge. At last the hour has come for us to meet face to face! (He withdraws to a corner in the shadows.) Scene III The Doge, preceded by a Captain with a trumpeter; Fiesco to one side.

Captain (on the balcony) Citizens! By order of the Doge extinguish the torches; let no shouts of triumph offend the valiant dead. (Exit, followed by the trumpeter.)

Doge My head is burning… I feel a dreadful fire creeping through my veins… Ah! let me breathe the sweet air of the open sky! What relief!… The sea breeze!… The sea!… The sea!… Seeing it again [37] brings back to me memories of triumphs and of glorious deeds! The sea!… the sea!.. Why did I not find a grave in its bosom?… Fiesco (approaching) It would have been better for you! Doge  

Who dares to intrude?.

Fiesco One who does not fear you… 163

Simon Boccanegra

DOGE (verso la destra chiamando)   Guardie? FIESCO   Invan le appelli… Non son qui i sgherri tuoi; m’ucciderai, ma pria m’odi… DOGE  

Che vuoi?

(I lumi della città e del porto cominciano a spegnersi.)

FIESCO Delle faci festanti al barlume[38] cifre arcane, funèbri vedrai. Tua sentenza la mano del nume sopra queste pareti vergò. Di tua stella s’eclissano i rai; la tua porpora in brani già cade; vincitor fra le larve morrai cui la tomba tua scure negò. DOGE Quale accento? FIESCO  

Lo udisti un’altra volta.

DOGE Fia ver? Risorgon dalle tombe i morti? FIESCO Non mi ravvisi tu? DOGE  

Fiesco!…

FIESCO   i morti ti salutano!

Simone, 164

act three  

Doge (calling towards the right)   Guards? Fiesco   You call them in vain… Your hired assassins are not here – you may kill me, but first hear me… Doge  

What do you want?

(The lights of the city and port start to go out.)

Fiesco By the gleam of the festive torches [38] you will see strange, fatal portents. The hand of God has written your sentence on these walls. The brilliance of your star is eclipsed; your purple is already falling into tatters; you, the conqueror, shall die amid the ghosts of those to whom your headsman denied burial. Doge Whose voice is that? Fiesco  

You have heard it before.

Doge Can it be? Have the dead risen from their tombs? Fiesco Do you not recognize me? Doge  

Fiesco!…

Fiesco   the dead greet you!

Simon, 165

Simon Boccanegra

DOGE   Gran Dio!… Compiuto alfin di quest’alma è il desio! FIESCO Come fantasima Fiesco t’appar, antico oltraggio a vendicar. DOGE Di pace nunzio Fiesco sarà, suggella un angelo nostra amistà. FIESCO Che dici? DOGE  

Un tempo il tuo perdon m’offristi…

FIESCO Io? DOGE   Se a te l’orfanella concedea che perduta per sempre allor piangea. In Amelia Grimaldi a me fu resa, e il nome porta della madre estinta. FIESCO Cielo!… Perché mi splende il ver sì tardi? DOGE Piangi?… Perché da me volgi gli sguardi?… FIESCO Piango perché mi parla[39] in te del ciel la voce; sento rampogna atroce fin nella tua pietà. 166

act three  

Doge   Merciful heaven!… My heart’s desire at last is fulfilled! Fiesco Like a phantom Fiesco appears before you, to avenge an ancient wrong. Doge Fiesco shall be a herald of peace, an angel will seal our friendship. Fiesco What are you saying? Doge  

Once you offered me your forgiveness…

Fiesco I did? Doge   If I gave up to you the orphan girl whom I then mourned as lost for ever. As Amelia Grimaldi she was returned to me, and she bears the name of her dead mother. Fiesco Heavens!… Why does the truth light upon me so late? Doge You weep?… Why do you turn your face away from me?… Fiesco I weep because through you [39] the voice of Heaven speaks to me; I feel a terrible rebuke even in your pity. 167

Simon Boccanegra

DOGE Vien, ch’io ti stringa al petto, o padre di Maria; balsamo all’alma mia il tuo perdon sarà. FIESCO Ahimè! morte sovrasta… un traditore il velen t’apprestò. DOGE   Tutto favella, il sento, a me d’eternità… FIESCO   Fato!

Crudele

DOGE   Ella vien… FIESCO  

Maria…

DOGE   Taci, non dirle… Anco una volta benedirla voglio. (S’abbandona sopra un seggiolone.) Scena quarta ed ultima. Detti, Maria, Gabriele, Senatori, Dame, Gentiluomini, Paggi con torce…

MARIA (vedendo Fiesco) Chi veggo! DOGE   GABRIELE  

Vien… (Fiesco!) 168

act three  

Doge Come, let me clasp you to my breast, O father of Maria; your pardon will be balm to my soul. Fiesco Alas! Death hangs over you… a traitor has given you poison. Doge   I feel that everything Speaks to me of eternity… Fiesco   fate!

Cruel

Doge   She is coming. Fiesco  

Maria…

Doge   Hush, do not tell her… I wish once more to give her my blessing. (He sinks into an armchair.) Final Scene. The above, Maria (Amelia), Gabriele, Senators, Ladies, Nobles, Pages with torches, etc.

MARIA (seeing Fiesco) Whom do I see? Doge   Gabriele  

Come… (Fiesco!) 169

Simon Boccanegra

MARIA (a Fiesco)  

Tu qui!

DOGE   Deponi la meraviglia. In Fiesco il padre vedi dell’ignota Maria, che ti die’ vita. MARIA Egli? Fia ver? FIESCO  

Maria!…

MARIA   Oh gioia! Dunque gli odii funesti han fine! DOGE Tutto finisce, o figlia… MARIA   Qual ferale pensier t’attrista sì sereni istanti? DOGE Maria, coraggio… a gran dolor t’appresta… MARIA (a Gabriele) Quali accenti! oh terror! DOGE   ora suonò!

Per me l’estrema

(Sorpresa generale)

MARIA, GABRIELE   Che parli?… 170

act three  

MARIA (to Fiesco)  

You here!

Doge   You witness a marvel. In Fiesco you see the father of the Maria you never knew, who gave you life. MARIA He?…Can this be true?… Fiesco  

Maria!…

MARIA   the bitter hatreds are ended!

Oh joy! Then

Doge Everything comes to an end, my daughter… MARIA   What gloomy thought saddens you in this moment of rejoicing? Doge Maria, have courage… prepare yourself for a grievous blow… MARIA (to Gabriele) What are these words? I am afraid! Doge   has struck!

My last hour

(General astonishment.)

MARIA and Gabriele   What do you mean?… 171

Simon Boccanegra

DOGE   Ma l’Eterno in tue braccia, o Maria, mi concede spirar… MARIA, GABRIELE (cadendo a’ piedi del Doge)   Possibil fia?… DOGE (sorge, e imponendo sul loro capo le mani solleva gli occhi al cielo, e dice) Gran Dio, li benedici[40] pietoso dall’empiro; a lor del mio martiro cangia le spine in fior. MARIA No, non morrai, l’amore vinca di morte il gelo; risponderà dal cielo pietade al mio dolor. GABRIELE O padre, o padre, il seno furia mi squarcia atroce… Come passò veloce l’ora del lieto amor! FIESCO Ogni letizia in terra è menzognero incanto, d’interminato pianto fonte è l’umano cor. DOGE T’appressa, o figlia… io spiro… Stringi… il morente… al cor! … CORO Sì, piange, piange, è vero, ognor la creatura; 172

act three  

Doge   allows me, Maria, to die in your arms..

But the Almighty

MARIA and Gabriele (falling at the Doge’s feet)   Can this be possible?… Doge (rising and, placing his hands on their heads, raising his eyes to heaven) Almighty God, in thy mercy [40] bless them from heaven; for their sake change the thorns of my martyrdom to flowers. MARIA No, you will not die, my love will conquer the chill of death, Heaven will answer my sorrow with pity. Gabriele O father, father, a dreadful fury tears at my breast… How swiftly the hour of happy love has passed! Fiesco All happiness on earth is a deluding spell; the human heart is a fount of never-ending woe. Doge Draw near, my daughter… I am dying… Hold me… to your heart… as I die!… Chorus Yes – it is true, man must always weep; 173

Simon Boccanegra

s’avvolge la natura in manto di dolor! DOGE Senatori, sancite il voto estremo. (I Senatori s’appressano)

Questo serto ducal la fronte cinga di Gabriele Adorno. Tu, Fiesco, compi il mio voler… Maria!!! (Spira)

MARIA, GABRIELE (s’inginocchiano davanti al cadavere) O padre!… FIESCO (s’avvicina al verone circondato da’ Senatori e paggi che alzano le fiaccole)   Genovesi!… In Gabriele Adorno il vostro Doge or acclamate. VoCI (dalla piazza) No – Boccanegra! FIESCO   È morto… Pace per lui pregate! (Lenti e gravi tocchi di campana. Tutti s’inginocchiano.)

174

act three  

nature wraps itself in a mantle of grief! Doge Senators, grant my last wish. (The Senators draw near.)

Let the Doge’s crown encircle the brow of Gabriele Adorno. You, Fiesco, carry out my purpose… Maria!!! (He dies.)

MARIA and Gabriele (kneeling before his body) O father!… Fiesco (going to the balcony, surrounded by the Senators and Pages, who raise their torches)   People of Genoa!… Now salute Gabriele Adorno as your Doge! Voices (from the square) No – Boccanegra! Fiesco   He is dead… Pray for the peace of his soul!… (Slow, heavy tolling of a bell. All kneel.)

175

Scenes from the 1857 Libretto

AMELIA Spuntò il giorno!… Ei non vien!… Forse sventura, forse altro amor!… No, nol consenta Iddio! L’alma mel dice!… Ei m’ama! È il fido mio. VOCE (lontana) Cielo di stelle orbato, di fior vedovo prato è l’alma senza amor. AMELIA Ciel!… la sua voce!… È desso! Ei s’avvicina!… oh gioia! ‘Tutto m’arride l’universo adesso!…’ VOCE (più vicina) Se manca il cor che t’ama, non empiono tua brama gemme, possanza, onor. AMELIA Il palpito deh frena, o core innamorato, in questo dì beato no, non vorrei morir. Ad iride somiglia la dolce sua parola, che in terra puote sol calmare i miei sospir. 178

1 [p. 87 in the 1881 libretto] In the 1857 version of the opera, this scene ended with a recitative and cabaletta. AMELIA Day has dawned!… He has not come!… Maybe something has happened…Perhaps another love!… God would not allow it!… My soul tells me so!… He loves me! He is faithful to me. VOICE (in the distance) Like the sky swept of stars, like a meadow bereft of flowers, is a heart without love. AMELIA O Heaven!… His voice!… It is he!… He is coming!… O joy!… ‘The whole world smiles on me now!…’ VOICE (nearer) Without a heart to love, riches, power and honour will all perish. AMELIA This trembling must be stilled, O loving heart, on this blessed day, no, I do not wish to die. Like a rainbow are his sweet words, which, of all things in the world, alone can calm my sighs. 179

Simon Boccanegra Scena II Detta e Gabriele dalla destra.

AMELIA Ti veggo alfin… Perché sì tardi giungi?

_______

Scena V Gabriele va per uscire dalla destra e incontra Andrea.

GABRIELE (Propizio giunge Andrea!) FIESCO   Sì mattutino Qui?

_______ FIESCO Se umìl sua culla fosse? GABRIELE Umìle!… una Grimaldi?

180

scenes from the 1857 libretto Scene II The above, and Gabriele entering from the right.

AMELIA I see you at last… Why so late in coming?

2 [p. 97] The 1857 version of the duet ended with a brilliant cabaletta (set to the same words as the 1881 text), a coda and a ‘battery of chords followed by applause and curtain calls. No such good fortune for the singers in 1881; for as Amelia enters the palace the music moves to a half close in a new key.’ (Budden, p. 294) Scene V Gabriele, making to leave right, meets Andrea.

GABRIELE (What luck!) FIESCO   Why?

So early!

3 [p. 97] 1857 version: FIESCO If she were humbly born? GABRIELE Humbly? A Grimaldi?…

181

Simon Boccanegra

_______

ANDREA In terra e in ciel. Ma non rallenti amor la foga in te de’ cittadini affetti. (Squillo di tromba.)

GABRIELE Il Doge vien. Partiam. Benché la fama ti dica estinto, ei ravvisar potria Fiesco in Andrea… ANDREA   S’appressa ora fatale; già noi de’ Guelfi aspetta il convegno forier della vendetta. GABRIELE, FIESCO Paventa, o perfido Doge, paventa!… D’un padre io vendico l’ombra cruenta. Paventa, o perfido Doge, paventa!… Mi chiede vindice la figlia spenta. (Escono dal fondo.) Scena VI Il suono delle trombe s’avvicina ognor più, finché dalla destra entra il Doge seguito da Paolo, Pietro, Cacciatori, Guardie; Amelia viene dalla sinistra con alquante Damigelle. 182

scenes from the 1857 libretto

4 [p. 99] In 1857 there was an impressive and ‘savage outburst against the Doge’. Basevi described ‘Paventa o perfido’ as the weakest number in the score. (Budden, p. 295) The versions converge with ‘Di qua partir convien’. ANDREA On earth and in heaven. But love does not lessen your ardour for the people’s cause. (Trumpets sound.)

GABRIELE The Doge is coming. Let’s go. Although it is believed you are no more, he may well see Fiesco in Andrea… ANDREA   The dread hour approaches; the Guelfs’ ominous plot for vengeance already awaits us. GABRIELE AND FIESCO Fear, o treacherous Doge, fear!… I now avenge a father’s bloody shade. Fear, O treacherous Doge, fear!… I must take revenge for that murdered daughter. (They leave at the back.) Scene VI The sound of trumpets draws nearer until the Doge enters from the right, followed by Paolo, Pietro, huntsmen, guards; Amelia enters from the left with some of her attendants. 183

Simon Boccanegra

DOGE (a Paolo) Il nuovo dì festivo chiede presente alla cittade il doge. Di qua partir convien.

_______

DOGE Qui un paradiso il tenero padre ti schiuderà… Di mia corona il raggi aureola tua sarà. AMELIA […] Padre, vedrai la vigile figlia a te sempre accanto; nell’ora malinconica asciugherò il tuo pianto… Non di regale orgoglio l’effimero splendor mi cingerà d’aureola il raggio dell’amor. DOGE Ma sì teneri affetti a me, bersaglio a patrizio livor, mostrar non lice. (Accompagnata dal Doge fino alla soglia, entra nella stanza a sinistra.)

184

scenes from the 1857 libretto

DOGE (to Paolo) The new day of celebration requires the Doge’s presence in the city. We shall have to leave.

5 [p. 109] The duet, in the 1857 version, ended with an ‘orthodox’ cabaletta. (Budden, p. 300) DOGE Your loving father will create a paradise for you… The lustre of my crown will be your glory. AMELIA […] Father, you shall see your daughter always watching; in your darkest hour I will wipe away your tears… Not with the fleeting glory of regal splendour, but you will encircle me with the radiance of love. DOGE To me, object of patrician hatred, such tender feelings may not be shown. (Accompanied by her father to the threshold, Amelia enters her apartments to the left.)

185

Simon Boccanegra

_______

Vasta Piazza di Genova. Di fronte è il porto con legni pavesati. Più lontano a destra veggonsi colline con castelli e palazzi. A destra e sinistra, ricchi fabbricati sostenuti da fughe d’archi con balconi ornati a festa, dai quali leggiadre donne assistono alla solennità. Nel fondo a destra è una larga via; a sinistra ampia scalea per cui salesi a grandioso palazzo; presso alla bocca d’opera è un palco riccamente addobbato. Si festeggia l’anniversaria ricorrenza dell’incoronazione di Boccanegra. All’alzar della tela la piazza è inondata da popolo d’ogni ordine che lietamente vi si aggira, portando bandiere, palme, verdi rami, e cantando il seguente Coro, finché giungono il Doge e la Corte.

CORO I A festa! CORO II   A festa, o Liguri Splende sereno il giorno! TUTTI Già cinque lustri corsero che d’ogni gloria adorno siede Simon sul trono!… CORO I A festa!… CORO II  

Udite! 186

scenes from the 1857 libretto

6 [p. 113] The major alteration made to the 1857 score by Verdi and Boito in 1880 was the introduction of the Council Chamber scene in place of this scene. Budden (pp. 303–09) discusses various features of the original score which were ‘bold’ and ‘novel’ for the time. A large square in Genoa. There is a view of the port with ships ‘dressed all over’. In the distance, on the right, can be seen castles and palaces. To right and left are magnificent buildings supported by a row of arches. These have balconies, decorated for the festivities, from which several beautifully dressed women lend dignity to the occasion. In the background, to the right, is a wide street; to the left, a broad stairway leading to a fine palace. By the proscenium arch is a richly decorated platform. The anniversary of Boccanegra’s coronation is being celebrated. The square is crowded with people of all classes, cheerfully mingling; they carry flags, palm leaves and green branches as they sing the following chorus, until the Doge and the court arrive.

CHORUS I To the celebrations! CHORUS II   To the celebrations, O people of Liguria… What a beautiful day! ALL Twenty-five years have already flown by since the glorious Simon was enthroned!… To the celebrations!… CHORUS I To the celebrations!… Chorus II  

Listen! 187

Simon Boccanegra

TUTTI   Un suon di giubilo dal mar!… (Tutti vanno al mare.)

CORO (da lontano avvicinandosi) Sull’arpe, sulle cetere tempriam soavi accenti… L’eco di tanto giubilo portin sull’ale i venti… (Arriva una barca con Giovanette in festivi abbigliamenti.)

Nembi di mirto e fiori tra festeggianti cori copran la terra e il mar (Scendono a terra e vanno ad incontrare il Doge, che seguito dai Senatori, da Paolo, Pietro e dalla sua corte viene dalla scalea, e va a prender posto sul destinato palco, mentre il Popolo con entusiasmo lo accoglie, e le Dame dalle finestre agitano bianchi lini, e gettano fiori sul suo passaggio.)

TUTTI Viva Simon!.. di Genova amor, sostegno e gloria; tu sei di guerra il fulmine, il sol della vittoria! Delle tue gesta il grido al più remoto lido va ripetendo il mar! (Il Doge seduto, compariscono Prigioni e Donne africane che formano gruppi e danze di carattere, mentre si canta.)

UOMINI Prode guerrier, qui sfolgori ne’ ludi il tuo valore. 188

scenes from the 1857 libretto

all   Sounds of rejoicing from the sea!… (They all go towards the sea.)

CHORUS (from a distance, drawing nearer) From harps, from lyres we draw sweet sounds… Let the winds carry the echo of so much rejoicing… (A boat arrives with young Girls in holiday dress.)

Let wreaths of myrtle and flowers among rejoicing choirs cover the land and sea. (They land and go to meet the Doge who, followed by the Senators, Paolo, Pietro and his court, emerges from the stairway to take his seat on the specially erected platform. The people welcome him enthusiastically and the ladies wave their white handkerchiefs from the windows, throwing flowers as he passes by.

ALL Long live Simon!… the love, support and glory of Genoa; you are the lightning of war, the sun of victory! The sea shouts aloud to its farthest shores of your deeds! (When the Doge is seated, Prisoners and African Women appear before him; they form into groups, sing and dance their traditional dances.)

MEN Brave warrior, let your valour shine forth in these games. 189

Simon Boccanegra

DONNE Intreccia, o figlia d’Africa, la danza dell’amore… TUTTI Letizia di carole agguagli i rai del sole che scherzano col mar. (La comune gioia è improvvisamente interrotta da grida.)

VOCI (interne) Tradimento! CORO  

Quai grida!…

VOCI (interne e più presso)  

Tradimento!

Scena XI Detti e Gabriele, ch’entra con pugnale sguainato, seguito da Fiesco e da alcuni Servi.

DOGE Chi sei tu che brandisci il pugnale? GABRIELE Qui prorompo tua infamia a scoprir. Accoglienza tradivi ospitale, festi Amelia a’ tuoi sgherri rapir. DOGE Forsennato! GABRIELE   DOGE  

M’oltraggi. Tu menti. 190

scenes from the 1857 libretto

WOMEN Weave, O daughter of Africa, the dance of love… ALL May the joy of singing and dancing be like the sunbeams playing on the sea. (The general festivities are suddenly interrupted by shouts.)

VOICES (offstage) Treachery! CHORUS  

What cries are these?…

VOICES (offstage and nearer)  

Treachery!

Scene XI The above and Gabriele, who enters with a bloody dagger, followed by Fiesco and a few servants.

DOGE Who are you, brandishing that dagger? GABRIELE Here I burst forth to reveal your infamy. You profit from this popular acclaim, by having your hired ruffians seize Amelia. DOGE You are mad! GABRIELE   DOGE  

You insult me. You lie. 191

Simon Boccanegra

GABRIELE Osi Adorno nomar menzognero? FIESCO (a Gabriele a parte) (Vien – l’impresa de’ Guelfi cimenti.) CORO (tra loro) Qual si svolge improvviso mistero! DOGE (piano a Paolo) Ov’è Amelia? PAOLO (paino al Doge)   Nol so. DOGE (come sopra)   La tua vita pagherà, se lei tosto non rendi. PAOLO (come sopra) Doge!… DOGE (a Gabriele)   Tu che la vergin difendi, va’… t’assolvo… GABRIELE   Rifiuto… qui sto; e alla Ligure gente t’accuso… A me ardisci parlar di perdono? Un pirata s’asside sul trono… Sì, costui vergin casta involò. ANDREA (piano a Gabriele) (Ah sei perduto!) GABRIELE  

Il Doge è infame…

ANDREA (come sopra a Gabriele)   192

Cessa.

scenes from the 1857 libretto

GABRIELE You dare to call Adorno a liar? FIESCO (aside to Gabriele) (Come – you are putting the Guelf venture at risk.) CHORUS (among themselves) What mystery has suddenly arisen? DOGE (quietly to Paolo) Where is Amelia? PAOLO (quietly to the Doge)   I don’t know. DOGE (as above)   You will pay with your life if you don’t restore her this minute. PAOLO (as above) Doge!… DOGE (to Gabriele)   You, who defend this young girl, go… I absolve you… GABRIELE   I refuse… I’ll stay here; and I accuse you, before the Ligurian people… You dare to speak of pardon to me? A pirate sits upon the throne… Yes, he hid this chaste virgin. FIESCO (quietly to Gabriele) (Ah, you are lost!) GABRIELE  

The Doge is wicked…

FIESCO (as before to Gabriele)  

Stop it. 193

Simon Boccanegra

DOGE Folle!… Scena XII Detti ed Amelia, che viene frettolosa dalla destra.

AMELIA   Il doge è innocente… TUTTI  

Amelia!… dessa!!

AMELIA (fissando Gabriele) (Egli è salvo!… o ciel respiro! Lo perdea l’ardente affetto… dal periglio il mio diletto Io col pianto involerò.) DOGE (fissando Amelia) (Ella è salva! alfin respiro! Per due volte l’alma mia sì bell’angelo smarria, per due volte il ritrovò!) GABRIELE (fissando Amelia) (Ella è salva! alfin respiro! Come fulmine il mio brando sulla fronte del nefando rapitore piomberà.) PAOLO, PIETRO (tra loro) (Ella è salva!… a sue promesse fu Lorenzo mentitore!… Maledetto traditore, duro fio ne pagherà.) ANDREA, CORO (tra loro) (Ella è salva!… ma chi osava oltraggiar quel vergin fiore? Maledetto il traditore!… Per lui taccia in cor pietà. 194

scenes from the 1857 libretto

DOGE Madman!… Scene XII Amelia and the above. Amelia comes in hurriedly from the right.

AMELIA   The Doge is innocent! ALL  

Amelia!… It is she!

AMELIA (gazing at Gabriele) (He is safe!… O Heaven, I breathe again! His burning love would have ruined him… I will protect my beloved from danger by weeping.) DOGE (gazing at Amelia) (She is safe!… At last I breathe again! Twice my soul lost sight of this lovely angel, twice it found her again!) GABRIELE (gazing at Amelia) (She is safe!… At last I breathe again! Like lightning my sword will fall upon the brow of the evil abductor.) PAOLO AND PIETRO (to each other) (She is safe!… Lorenzo was false to his promises!… Accursed traitor, he shall pay dearly for it.) FIESCO AND CHORUS (to each other) (She is safe!… But who would dare ravage that virgin flower? Accursed be the traitor!… The heart has no pity for him.) 195

Simon Boccanegra

After Amelia’s account of her abduction, for which the text in both versions is the same, the scene ends thus: CORO Al vile Lorenzo la morte, la morte! AMELIA Non egli è di tanto misfatto il più reo; io, salva, promisi serbargli la vita. DOGE Ch’ei viva, ma tosto da Genova in bando. GABRIELE Or noma l’iniquo che t’ebbe rapita… AMELIA Al doge dirollo… CORO  

A tutti…

DOGE   tacete!

Comando,

TUTTI   Giustizia, giustizia tremenda, gridiam palpitanti di sacro furor. Del ciel, della terra l’anàtema scenda sul capo esecrato del vil traditor! (Quadro e cade la tela.)

196

scenes from the 1857 libretto

After Amelia’s account of her abduction, for which the text in both versions is the same, the scene ends thus: CHORUS Death to the base Lorenzo, death! AMELIA It was not he who, amidst so much wrong, is the most guilty; I promised to save his life if mine was saved. DOGE He may live, but exiled at once from Genoa. GABRIELE Now name the villain who abducted you… AMELIA I’ll tell the Doge… CHORUS  

Tell us all…

DOGE   silence!

I command

ALL   Justice, pitiless justice, we cry as we tremble with holy rage. May the curse of Heaven and earth fall on the detested head of the vile traitor! (There is a stage tableau and the curtain falls.)

197

Simon Boccanegra

_______ Scena II Paolo solo.

PAOLO O doge ingrato!… ch’io rinunci Amelia e i suoi tesori?… fra tre dì a me il bando a me cui devi il trono? Tre giorni troppi alla vendetta sono.

_______

FIESCO Tal nome m’è nuovo. PAOLO   Tu sei Fiesco. FIESCO  

Io so il nome che celasi in te.

Che parli?

_______ PAOLO Stolido. Va’! (Fiesco parte dalla destra; Gabriele fa per seguirlo, ma è arrestato da Paolo.)

198

scenes from the 1857 libretto

7 [p. 133] In 1857, Paolo’s soliloquy was shorter. See Budden, p. 316. Scene II Paolo alone.

PAOLO O ungrateful Doge!… Must I give up Amelia and her charms?… In three days, exile? For me, to whom you owe the throne?… Three days are too many for revenge on you.

8 [p. 135] The 1857 version of this scene retains the reference to Fiesco’s alias, and converges on the line ‘Al cimento’. FIESCO That name is new to me. PAOLO   You are Fiesco. FIESCO  

I know the name you are hiding.

What are you talking about?…

9 [p. 137] In the 1857 version the scene ends: PAOLO Fool! Go! (Exit Fiesco, to the right; Gabriele starts to follow him but is stopped by Paolo.)

199

Simon Boccanegra

_______

AMELIA   Io l’amo di pura inestinguibil fiamma.

_______

Scena come nell’Atto Secondo. Le tende sono tirate sui veroni del fondo. Una lucerna arde sulla tavola. Scena I Il Doge entra dalla sinistra seguito da Gabriele, Paolo, Pietro, Senatori, Scudieri, Paggi, ecc. ecc.

SENATORI Doge, a’ tuoi passi è scorta il sol della vittoria; fronda di nuova gloria aggiungi ai côlti allor. POPOLO (dalla piazza) Fra i procellosi nembi delle fraterne offese, Doge, per te s’accese astro serenator. DOGE Brando guerrier nella mia destra splende; la vostra quel della giustizia impugni. 200

scenes from the 1857 libretto

10 [p. 149]

In the 1857 libretto: AMELIA   I love him with a burning, boundless love.

11 [p. 159] The 1857 version of Act Three opens with a double male voice chorus, and a confused dialogue involving references to details in the original play. (Budden, p. 322) The two versions come together again when the Doge exclaims ‘Oh refrigerio!’. Scene as in Act Two. The awnings are pulled down over the balcony at the back. An oil lamp burns on the table. Scene I The Doge enters left, followed by Gabriele, Paolo, Pietro, Senators, Squires, Pages etc.

SENATORS Doge, in your steps we see the bright sun of victory; a glorious new branch to add to your gathered laurels. PEOPLE (from the square) Amid the turbulent clouds of fratricidal strife, Doge, we are inspired by you, O bright and guiding star. DOGE This warlike sword gleams in my hand; you grasp justice in yours. 201

Simon Boccanegra (poi a Gabriele)

Tu vieni al tempio, ove alla tua prodezza Degna mercè t’aspetta. PIETRO (a Paolo a parte) Fa’ cor, tutto disposi. PAOLO Alfin l’ora suonò della vendetta! (Tutti, meno Paolo, escono dalla destra.) Scena II Paolo, poi Fiesco dalla sinistra.

CORO Dal sommo delle sfere proteggili, o Signor; di pace sien foriere le nozze dell’amor. PAOLO (apre la porta ed introduce Fiesco, cui dice) Oh mio furor!… perduta io l’ho per sempre! Io la promessa tenni. Ecco le stanze del doge… E i tuoi ch’esser dovean qui teco Ove sono? FIESCO  

Nol so… Fuggian…

PAOLO   noi pur… FIESCO  

Fuggiam

Fuggir!…

PAOLO   Se complice alla morte del doge qui segnato esser non vuoi? 202

scenes from the 1857 libretto (then to Gabriele)

Come to the church: for your bravery well-deserved thanks awaits you there. PIETRO (aside to Paolo) Take heart, all will be well. PAOLO At last it is time to take revenge. (All exit right, Paolo remains.) Scene II Paolo, then Fiesco from the left.

CHORUS From thy seat on high protect them, O Lord; may this marriage of true love be the harbinger of peace. PAOLO (opening the door and letting Fiesco in, saying to him) Oh fury!… I have lost her now for ever!… I kept my promise – here are the rooms of the Doge… And your followers, who should have been with you, where are they? FIESCO  

I do not know… They have fled…

PAOLO   as well… FIESCO  

Let us flee

Flee!…

PAOLO   Unless you want to be implicated in the Doge’s death, which has been plotted? 203

Simon Boccanegra

FIESCO La morte!… Che dicesti?… PAOLO Veleno ardente… FIESCO  

Infame!

PAOLO   siam tutti… FIESCO  

Vendicati

Orror!… va’… fuggi.

PAOLO  

E tu?

FIESCO  

Qui resto.

PAOLO Io co’ tuoi riederò. (Esce dalla sinistra.) Scena III Fiesco solo.

FIESCO   Simon, non questa vendetta io chiesi – d’altra fine degno eri… Al sospetto di cotanta infamia saprà sottrarmi morte… (Si ritira nel fondo.) Scena IV Detto e Doge, seguito da Pietro dalla destra.

204

scenes from the 1857 libretto

FIESCO Death!… What are you saying? PAOLO A strong poison… FIESCO  

Infamy!

PAOLO   avenged… FIESCO  

We are all

What horror!… Go… Flee!

PAOLO  

And you?

FIESCO  

I shall stay.

PAOLO I shall return with your followers. (Exit left.) Scene III Fiesco alone.

FIESCO   Simon, I did not seek this revenge – you were worthy of another end… Suspicion of such villainy will be removed from me by death… (He withdraws to the back.) Scene IV The above and the Doge, followed by Pietro from the right.

205

Simon Boccanegra

DOGE Pietro, m’ardon le tempia – un fuoco io sento serpeggiar per le vene… Alle marine aure il veron dischiudi. Pietro alza le tende, e si vede la piazza illuminata.

DOGE  

Qual fulgore?

PIETRO La tua vittoria il popolo festeggia. DOGE Chi turbar degli estinti osa la pace e schernisce ai caduti?… Va’ – comando – questa luce s’estingua. (Pietro esce dalla sinistra.)

206

scenes from the 1857 libretto

DOGE Pietro, my brow is burning – I feel a fire coursing through my veins… Open the awnings to the sea air. (Pietro raises the awnings to reveal the piazza with its festive lights.)

DOGE  

What are those lights?

PIETRO The people are celebrating your victory. DOGE Who dares disturb the peace of the dead? And mock the fallen? Go – I command you – extinguish this light. (Exit Pietro left.)

207

Select Discography For a discussion of historic and off-the-air recordings, see Lord Harewood, ‘Simon Boccanegra’, Opera on Record, ed. Alan Blyth (London: Hutchinson, 1979), pp. 250–57, and C.J. Luten, ‘Simon Boccanegra’, The Metropolitan Guide to Recorded Opera, ed. Paul Gruber (London and NY: Thames and Hudson, 1993), pp. 620–24. YEAR

CAST SIMON BOCCANEGRA MARIA BOCCANEGRA (AMELIA GRIMALDI) JACOPO FIESCO GABRIELE ADORNO PAOLO ALBIANI

CONDUCTOR/ORCHESTRA

LABEL

1939* Lawrence Tibbett Elisabeth Rethberg Ezio Pinza Giovanni Martinelli Leonard Warren

Ettore Panizza Metropolitan Opera

Myto Historical (Live)

1951* Paolo Silveri Antonietta Stella Mario Petri Carlo Bergonzi Walter Monachesi

Francesco Molinari- Pradelli RAI, Rome

Cetra (Live)

1957* Tito Gobbi Victoria de los Angeles Boris Christoff Giuseppe Campora Walter Monachesi

Gabriele Santini Rome Opera

EMI Classics/ Naxos

1973

Gianandrea Gavazzeni RCA

RCA

1881 REVISED VERSION

Piero Cappuccilli Katia Ricciarelli Ruggero Raimondi Plácido Domingo Piero Mastromei

209

Simon Boccanegra

1977

Piero Cappuccilli Mirella Freni Nicolai Ghiaurov José Carreras José van Dam

Claudio Abbado La Scala, Milan

DG

1988

Leo Nucci Kiri Te Kanawa Paata Burchuladze Giacomo Aragall Paolo Coni

Georg Solti La Scala, Milan

Decca

1857 ORIGINAL VERSION 1975

Sesto Bruscantini Josella Ligi Gwynne Howell André Turp William Elvin

John Matheson BBC Concert

Opera Rara (Live)

1999

Vittorio Vitelli Annalisa Raspagliosi Francesco Ellero d’Artegna Warren Mok Nikola Mijailovic

Renato Palumbo Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia

Dynamic (Live)

* mono

210

Simon Boccanegra on DVD, a Selection For a complete listing, including non-commercial and television films, up to 2004, see Ken Wlaschin, Encyclopedia of Opera on Screen (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), pp. 644–45. YEAR CAST SIMON BOCCANEGRA MARIA BOCCANEGRA (AMELIA GRIMALDI) JACOPO FIESCO GABRIELE ADORNO PAOLO ALBIANI

CONDUCTOR

DIRECTOR/COMPANY

all 1881 REVISED VERSION 1978

Piero Cappuccilli Mirella Freni Nicolai Ghiaurov Veriano Luchetti Felice Schiavi

Claudio Abbado

Giorgio Strehler La Scala, Milan

1984

Sherrill Milnes Anna Tomowa-Sintow Paul Plishka Vasile Moldoveanu Richard J. Clarke

James Levine

Tito Capobianco Metropolitan Opera

1991

Alexandru Agache Kiri Te Kanawa Roberto Scandiuzzi Michael Sylvester Alan Opie

Georg Solti

Elijah Moshinsky Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

1995

Vladimir Chernov Kiri Te Kanawa Robert Lloyd Plácido Domingo Bruno Pola

James Levine

Giancarlo del Monaco Metropolitan Opera

211

1998

Giancarlo Pasquetto Jelena Prokina Alastair Miles David Rendall Peter Sidhom

Mark Elder

Peter Hall Glyndebourne Festival

2002

Carlo Guelfi Karita Mattila Julian Konstantinov Vincenzo La Scola Lucio Gallo

Claudio Abbado

Peter Stein Teatro Communale, Florence

2002

Thomas Hampson Cristina Gallardo-Domâs Ferruccio Furlanetto Miroslav Dvorský Boaz Daniel

Daniele Gatti

Peter Stein Wiener Staatsoper

2010

Plácido Domingo Mariana Polavskaya Ferruccio Furlanetto Joseph Calleja Jonathan Summers

Antonio Pappano

Elijah Moshinsky Royal Opera House Covent Garden

Select Bibliography Abbate, Carolyn and Parker, Roger (eds.), Analysing Opera: Verdi and Wagner (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1989) Balthazar, Scott L., The Cambridge Companion to Verdi (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004) Busch, Hans (ed. and trans.), Verdi’s ‘Otello’ and ‘Simon Boccanegra’ (Revised Version) in Letters and Documents, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988) Budden, Julian, The Operas of Verdi, 3 vols. (London: Cassell, 1973–81; rev. edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992) Budden, Julian, Verdi (Master Musicians Series), (New York: Oxford University Press, 3rd edn., 2008) Chusid, Martin (ed.), Verdi’s Middle Period, 1849–59: Source Studies, Analysis and Performance Practice (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997) Conati, Marcello (ed.), trans. Richard Stokes, Interviews and Encounters with Verdi (London: Gollancz, 1984) Conati, Marcello and Medici, Mario (ed.), trans. William Weaver, The Verdi–Boito Correspondence (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994)

213

Simon Boccanegra

Latham, Alison and Parker, Roger (eds.), Verdi in Performance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001) Osborne, Charles, The Complete Operas of Verdi (London: Gollancz, 1969) Osborne, Charles, Letters of Giuseppe Verdi (London: Gollancz, 1971) Parker, Roger, The New Grove Guide to Verdi and his Operas (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009) Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane, Verdi, A Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993) Rosselli, John, The Life of Verdi (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000) Toye, Francis, Giuseppe Verdi: His Life and Work (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1931) Walker, Frank, The Man Verdi (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, rev. edn., 1982) Weaver, William: Verdi: A Documentary Study (London: Thames and Hudson, 1977) Weaver, William and Chusid, Martin (eds.), The Verdi Companion (New York: Norton, 1979)

214

Verdi Websites In English or with an English-language option www.giuseppeverdi.it opera.stanford.edu/Verdi/main.html www.operadis-opera-discography.org.uk/CLORVERD.HTM www.imslp.org/wiki/Category:Verdi,_Giuseppe

215

Note on the Contributors Rodolfo Celletti, a distinguished Italian musicologist, wrote and lectured on many aspects of opera. He died in 2004. James Hepokoski is Professor of Music at Yale. Among his publications are Giuseppe Verdi: Falstaff and Giuseppe Verdi: Otello in the Cambridge Opera Handbook series. Desmond Shawe-Taylor, music critic of The New Statesman & Nation (1945–58) and subsequently of The Sunday Times, contributed about seventy-five entries on famous singers to The New Grove (1980). He died in 1995. George Hall writes widely on classical music and especially opera, including for the Guardian, Opera, Opera News and BBC Music Magazine.

217

Appendix From Giulio Ricordi’s Simon Boccanegra Production Manual (1883) Verdi’s publisher, Giulio Ricordi, compiled production manuals of model productions for a number of Verdi’s late operas. What follows are the directions for the end of the last scene of Act Three of Simon Boccanegra, based on the production of the revised version supervised by Verdi at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan in 1881.

219

Immediately from the left enters GABRIELE, leading AMELIA; they are followed by Ladies, Gentlemen and Senators,1 who come on stage from right and left; behind the bridal couple are six Pages2 with torches and eight Guards who line up at the back.

GABRIELE and AMELIA enter smiling and are amazed when they notice FIESCO next to the DOGE; at the DOGE’s answer, AMELIA goes forwards, exclaiming, ‘Oh gioia!’ The DOGE says gravely, ‘Tutto finisce, o figlia’; AMELIA is surprised, goes towards her father, and exclaims together with GABRIELE, ‘Che parli?’

1 Minus six basses and five sopranos required for the last off-stage chorus. 2 While the Pages with the torches come on stage, the footlights are brought up to full intensity.

221

Simon Boccanegra

The greatest emotion shows on the faces of all present, as they silently and reverently witness this heart-rending scene. Crying out in despair, ‘Possibil fia’, AMELIA and GABRIELE fall at the DOGE’s feet; he rises and places his hands on their heads, raises his eyes to heaven and says, ‘Gran Dio, li benedici’.

At the words ‘Le spine in fior’, the couple rise, and AMELIA, embracing her father, exclaims with the greatest sorrow, ‘No, non morrai’; GABRIELE also says, ‘O padre, o padre!’ FIESCO advances and solemnly says, ‘Ogni letizia’. The DOGE takes a step forwards, helped by AMELIA and GABRIELE, who in a heart-rending tone exclaim, ‘Non morrai!’

Saying one last ‘Non morrai’, AMELIA in despair goes a little way from the DOGE,

but he calls her back with the words, ‘T’appressa, o figlia’. AMELIA, sobbing, repeats, ‘Ah! no, non morrai’. The Chorus take a step forwards, whispering in a low tone words of sorrow and commiseration.

222

appendix

Suddenly, the DOGE collapses, and, sustained by AMELIA and GABRIELE, he is almost dragged towards the chair; there is a terrible silence; the Chorus withdraw towards the wings leaving an empty space in the centre, gathering in several silent groups. The DOGE is put down gently on the chair;

he calls, ‘Senatori!’ – Three Senators come quite a few steps forwards from the Chorus on the right towards the DOGE to receive his orders; GABRIELE moves away a little.

The DOGE points to the ducal cap, saying, ‘Questo serto ducal’, then turning to FIESCO tells him, ‘Tu, Fiesco, compi il mio voler’. All these words have to be pronounced with difficulty, while his voice keeps growing fainter; suddenly the DOGE rises, extends his arms towards his daughter, and with a supreme effort exclaims ‘Maria!…’ He would like to say more, but he cannot; he falls onto the chair, turns his eyes one last time towards the sea, his head falls backwards; he is dead. AMELIA and GABRIELE cry out a heartrending , ‘Padre! Padre!’ and they kneel in front of the body. FIESCO 223

Simon Boccanegra

goes to the balcony followed by the three Senators and by two Pages who flank him with raised torches.

FIESCO speaks to the people below, who answer, ‘No, Boccanegra’ (off stage on the right); at the words ‘Pace per lui pregate’, the Chorus kneel down; FIESCO, the Pages and the three Senators remain still. The Chorus whisper, ‘Pace per lui’, while the slow tolling of a bell is heard.

The curtain falls slowly; ALL must maintain the utmost stillness until the curtain is completely down.

224

Acknowledgements We would like to thank John Allison of Opera magazine and Charles Johnston for their assistance and advice in the preparation of this guide. We are also grateful to Mary Bergin-Cartwright of the Oxford University Press.

225