Hearing the opera last evening in Philadelphia as a pillar of Festival O23—in a very distinguished and sometime revelatory evening—I wondered why…

Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra had its premiere in 1857 at La Fenice in Venice, and was revised and “re-premiered” at La Scala in 1881. In the intervening 24 years came Un Ballo in Maschera, La Forza del Destino, Don Carlos and Don Carlo, and Aida, as well as some additional tweaking to Macbeth. Simon Boccanegra is not a forgotten opera; then and now, it holds a place in the repertory. Still, seeing it on the continuum, it’s clearly in the shadow of those others, whose name recognition and status place them centrally in the public imagination as masterpieces.

Click here to read the full review at Parterre Box.