“There is an energy that goes back and forth between the stage, the pit and the auditorium – creators of art and receivers of art in exquisite synergy. Without all of you, without your support, there is no Opera. And you have our heart of gratitude and appreciation for your understanding, your patience, and your belief in this company,” Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock told Tuesday’s crowd. “Tonight we raise the curtain on a new season of exploration, discovery and artistry.”<\/p>\n
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San Francisco Opera’s production of Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra.” (Cory Weaver\/San Francisco Opera)<\/p>\n
On the principle that delayed gratification can sometimes enhance pleasure, this “Boccanegra” was worth waiting for.<\/p>\n
More Information<\/p>\n
“Simon Boccanegra”: San Francisco Opera. 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25; 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept 27. $36-$443. War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Avenue, S.F. 415-864-3330. www.sfopera.com<\/a><\/p>\n The singing, which was strong throughout, improved as the opera moved through the libretto’s tortuous revelations. Music Director Eun Sun Kim dialed the orchestra up to a jolting high intensity early on and brought tragic grandeur to the last act, though there were some indifferent passages along the way.<\/p>\n The opera’s sprawling narrative includes 14th-century Genoan political machinations, romantic passion, rebellion, slow-acting poison, two long-lost daughters and two clashing fathers. The Claus Guth production, first mounted at the Hamburg State Opera in 2006 and restaged here by Katherine M. Carter, binds the work together with its haunting, reverberant direction and design.<\/p>\n That’s no easy matter. The opera flopped when it premiered in 1857, and Verdi waited 24 years to revise it with a new libretto by Arrigo Boito. The updated version of “Simon Boccanegra” has been performed ever since, but challenges remain – including a long prologue set 25 years before the main action.<\/p>\n Amartuvshin Enkhbat as Simon Boccanegra, left, Eleonora Buratto as Amelia Grimaldi, and Joshua Guerrero as Gabriele Adorno in Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra.” (Cory Weaver\/San Francisco Opera)<\/p>\n In this production, the curtain rises on a tableau of the opera’s final moments, namely the death of the Doge. It is an inspired innovation as the opera becomes a flashback, enhancing the way Guth’s staging plays with time and deepening the sense of fate looming over the title character, sung by the somber and sonorous baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat.<\/p>\n The only female lead changes her name from Maria to Amelia when her past slips away from her, sung by the potent and lustrous soprano Eleonora Buratto. Her stormy lover and activist rebel, the volatile tenor Joshua Guerrero, becomes a convincing, mature leader.<\/p>\n In this story, long-held hatreds gradually give way. The powerful bass-baritone Christian Van Horn sang with particular fire as the aggrieved Fiesco, who confronts and reconciles with the Doge.<\/p>\n Christian Schmidt’s set design is dominated by an enormous picture frame, which is used as an interior playing space, a mirror and a seascape painting that references Boccanegra’s rise from humble roots to a seafaring hero and peace-making Doge. Performers appear inside the frame and also downstage, like visions from the past that shadow and inform the present. A woman who never appears in the libretto is eerily present.<\/p>\n Indeed, Guth’s production fashions the opera into a kind of ghost story that takes place in a fluid, liminal time. Some performers pass through in dreamy isolation, their gaits deliberately slow, while others walk backwards into the wings as if in a film on rewind. This staging brings to mind Robert Wilson’s “Einstein on the Beach,” known for the glacial pace of its actors. But nothing about Guth’s brilliant realization of Verdi’s masterwork feels derivative. The costumes are mostly modern<\/a>, and the feeling of the production is timeless.<\/p>\n Christian Van Horn as Jacopo Fiesco, left, and Amartuvshin Enkhbat as the title role in Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra.” (Cory Weaver\/San Francisco Opera)<\/p>\n One exception to an otherwise sure-footed and psychologically probing production is a slowly and then all of a sudden hanging meteor that looks like it has dropped in from another operatic universe.<\/p>\n But it’s a small distraction. This vitally imagined and performed “Simon Boccanegra” is a big win for the Opera as it begins its 104th season. With the strike ended in time for three performances, the company delivered a memorable new beginning.<\/p>\n Chronicle staff writer Tony Bravo contributed to this review.<\/p>\n Steven Winn is a freelance writer. This review has been provided in partnership with San Francisco Classical Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n Subscribe<\/p>\n There’s more to San Francisco with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25\u00a2.<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Amartuvshin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/san_francisco_chronicle_hearst_178\/017ef3b3aa211b0d9972e2ec05e63bcb.jpg\"\/)
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