[8/19/2012] Simon and Maria Boccanegra -- no longer alone in an unkind world (continued)

Alas, as this sneak peak at the end of the opera shows, the Boccanegras don't live happily ever after. (That's Anja Harteros with Plácido Domingo -- jeez, you'd think nobody else had ever sung the title role.)


LET'S PRESS JUST A BIT FURTHER INTO THE BOCCANEGRA-AMELIA SCENE

Act I, Scene 1, Boccanegra, "Figlia il cor ti chiama" . . . "Figlia a tal nome io palpito" . . . Maria, "Padre! vedrai la vigile"

Note: I apologize for the abrupt cutoff of the version of Boccanegra's "Figlia a tal nome io palpito" in the clip we heard at the top of this post. It was an ugly but necessary compromise, since the final syllable of his utterance is overlapped by the first syllable of Maria's reply, as we'll hear now. We pick up just before "Figlia a tal nome."

SIMON B: Daughter my heart calls you!
MARIA B: Clasp to your breast Maria, who loves you!
SIMON B: Daughter! At the name I tremble
as if Heaven had opened up to me.
You reveal to me
a world of unspeakable joy;
your loving father will create
for you a paradise;
the luster of my crown
will be your glory.
MARIA B: Father, you shall see
your watchful daugher
always near you;
I will wipe away your tears.
We shall taste undiscovered joys,
known only to heave;
I will be the dove of peace
at your royal palace.

Anselmo Colzani (b), Simon Boccanegra; Renata Tebaldi (s), Maria Boccanegra; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Fausto Cleva, cond. Live performance, Jan. 30, 1965


OOPS, WE'VE VIOLATED ONE OF OUR BASIC RULES.
WE HAVEN'T HEARD HOW THE OPERA STARTS

And I think we should correct this deficit before proceeding. Here's the muted, somber, almost hypnotic little orchestral prelude with which Verdi has the revised version of Simon Boccanegra open, with its newly created Prologue.

VERDI: Simon Boccanegra: Prelude


Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Sir Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded December 1988


BEFORE WE HEAR THE FULL BOCCANEGRA-AMELIA SCENE,
WE'RE GOING TO BACK UP TO AN EARLY POINT IN IT

We're not going to break down the whole scene, as we've done with other scenes we looked at, including the Elektra Recognition Scene. But I do want to spotlight a chunk from near the start.

When we get to the full scene, you'll notice that the Doge's tone in approaching Amelia isn't wildly sympathetic. His timing in pressing his unspeakable underling Paolo's suit isn't great, since as mentioned, Amelia has just committed herself to marrying the dashing young Patrician Gabriele Adorno. Does she know that the Doge has come calling in order to strong-arm her into marrying Paolo? Before the Doge brings him up, she does, branding him a miscreant. When the Doge expresses a measure of sympathy interest in her, she seizes the opportunity to share a secret.

Amelia, "Non son una Grimaldi" . . . "Orfanella il tetto umile"

"AMELIA": I am not a Grimaldi.
BOCCANEGRA: Heavens! You are?
"AMELIA": The lovely roof of a poor woman
sheltered me as an orphan,
where Pisa rises
near the sea --
BOCCANEGRA: In Pisa, you?
"AMELIA": That good woman, heavy with years,
was my only support;
I tempted 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.
BOCCANEGRA [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!

Renata Tebaldi (s), "Amelia Grimaldi"; Anselmo Colzani (b), Simon Boccanegra; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Fausto Cleva, cond. Live performance, Jan. 30, 1965

Leyla Gencer (s), "Amelia Grimaldi"; Tito Gobbi (b), Simon Boccanegra; Vienna Philharmonic, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, cond. Live performance from the Salzburg Festival, Aug. 9, 1961


OKAY, WE HAVE ONE MORE LOOSE END STILL
DANGLING: ABOUT THAT FINAL "FIGLIA!"

Baritone 1 has less trouble than you might expect with the high F, but then kind of crash-lands (it's a live performance, remember) on the low one. Baritone 2 has the more expectable opposite problem: He apparently can't do a soft high F but manages the easier low one quite nicely. What we're looking for, I think, is something more along the lines of baritones 3 (a bass-baritone, you'll note) and 4.


(1) Tito Gobbi (Salzburg Festival, 1961; Gianandrea Gavazzeni, cond.)
(2) Leo Nucci (Decca recording, 1988; Sir Georg Solti, cond.)
(3) José van Dam (Marseille, 1993, Lyrinx; Michelangelo Veltri, cond.)
(4) Anselmo Colzani (Metropolitan Opera, 1965; Fausto Cleva, cond.)


NOW, FINALLY, WE'RE GOING TO HEAR THE COMPLETE SCENE

The translation, by the way, is mostly Lionel Salter's, for the Abbado-DG recording.

SIMON BOCCANEGRA, the Plebeian doge of Genoa, has come calling on the young woman, ward of a Patrician family who is known as AMELIA GRIMALDI, who has just affianced herself to a doughty young Patrician, to persuade her to marry his loathsome henchman PAOLO ALBIANI.

SIMON BOCCANEGRA: Is the Doge addressing Amelia Grimaldi?
"AMELIA GRIMALDI": That's what I'm called.
BOCCANEGRA: And desire for their country
does not haunt your exiled brothers?
"AMELIA": Indeed . . . but . . .
BOCCANEGRA: I understand.
The Grimaldis disdain to bow to me.
This is how the Doge answers such pride.
[Hands her a paper.]
"AMELIA" [reading it]: What do I see? Their pardon?
BOCCANEGRA: The gift of clemency is due to you.
Tell me, why do you hide 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.
BOCCANEGRA: At your age, love --
"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.
BOCCANEGRA: 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.
BOCCANEGRA: Heavens! You are?
"AMELIA": The lovely roof of a poor woman
sheltered me as an orphan,
where Pisa rises
near the sea --
BOCCANEGRA: In Pisa, you?
"AMELIA": That good woman, heavy with years,
was my only support;
I tempted 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.
BOCCANEGRA [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!
BOCCANEGRA: Tell me, did you see no one there?
"AMELIA": A seaman used to visit us.
BOCCANEGRA: And Giovanna was the name
of the woman fate snatched from you?
"AMELIA": Yes.
BOCCANEGRA [draws from his breast a locket and hands it to AMELIA, who does likewise]: And was the portrait not like this?
"AMELIA": They are the same.
BOCCANEGRA: Maria!
"AMELIA": My name!
BOCCANEGRA: You are my daughter!
"AMELIA": I?
BOCCANEGRA: Embrace me, o my daughter!
MARIA BOCCANEGRA: Father! Ah! Clasp to your breast Maria, who loves you!
SIMON BOCCANEGRA [simultaneously]: Ah! daughter my heart calls you!
[Orchestral outburst]
SIMON B: Daughter, daughter my heart calls you!
MARIA B: Clasp to your breast Maria, who loves you!
SIMON B: Daughter! At the name I tremble
as if Heaven had opened up to me.
You reveal to me
a world of unspeakable joy;
your loving father will create
for you a paradise;
the luster of my crown
will be your glory.
MARIA B: Father, you shall see
your watchful daugher
always near you;
I will wipe away your tears.
We shall taste undiscovered joys,
known only to heave;
I will be the dove of peace
at your royal palace.
[MARIA, accompanied by her father all the way to the threshold, enters the palace. SIMON contemplates her ecstatically as she disappears.]
SIMON B [and he says one last time]: Daughter!

Tito Gobbi (b), Simon Boccanegra; Leyla Gencer (s), Maria Boccanegra; Vienna Philharmonic, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, cond. Live performance from the Salzburg Festival, Aug. 9, 1961

Anselmo Colzani (b), Simon Boccanegra; Renata Tebaldi (s), Maria Boccanegra; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Fausto Cleva, cond. Live performance, Jan. 30, 1965

Leo Nucci (b), Simon Boccanegra; Kiri Te Kanawa (s), Maria Boccanegra; Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Sir Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded December 1988

José van Dam (bs-b), Simon Boccanegra; Daniela Longhi (s); Orchestra of the Opéra de Marseille, Michelangelo Veltri, cond. Lyrinx, recorded live, January 1993


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