{"id":474718,"date":"2026-09-25T00:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T00:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/474718\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T00:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T00:10:14","slug":"leaden-production-and-direction-undercut-sensational-music-in-san-francisco-operas-simon-boccanegra-seen-and-heard-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/474718\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaden production and direction undercut sensational music in San Francisco Opera\u2019s Simon Boccanegra \u2013 Seen and Heard International"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"United\"UnitedUnited States Verdi, Simon Boccanegra: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of San Francisco Opera \/ Eun Sun Kim (conductor). War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, 22.9.2026. (HS)<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Eleonora Buratto (Amelia) and Joshua Guerrero (Gabriele Adorno) \u00a9 Cory Weaver\/SFO<\/p>\n

A labor strike by the orchestra delayed San Francisco Opera\u2019s opening by 10 days, but when the curtain finally rose the orchestra was the engine that delivered the passion and musical vivacity in Verdi\u2019s Simon Boccanegra. Conductor Eun Sun Kim brought out all the instrumental energy one could want and achieved pinpoint balance with a cast of superb voices.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, a misguided production drained some of the juice from the music and almost all of the opera\u2019s tale of messy politics and a too-late healing of nasty family secrets.<\/p>\n

The strike, which pulled the plug at the last hour on the scheduled opening night of 12 September, was settled with a four-year contract (ratified just in time for the delayed opener to go on). If the orchestra wanted to prove that it was worth it, the sounds from the pit underlined how important their contribution always is. Verdi\u2019s music, in the 1881 revision that reflected the composer\u2019s first work with Arrigo Boito as librettist (a combo that later produced Otello and Falstaff), emerged brilliantly.<\/p>\n

The sounds from the pit told the story so much better than the production and direction, first seen two decades ago in Hamburg. Claus Guth, the original director, and revival director Katherine M. Carter only made the confusing narrative less clear. Characters wandered the stage and seldom faced or touched each other, even at dramatic moments such as when the title character discovers he has found the daughter lost for 25 years since childhood.<\/p>\n

Updating the opera from 14th-century Genoa with modern dress was intended to emphasize the relevance to our times of this very human story. There were a lot of gray trenchcoats. Before the music started, a pantomime of Simon\u2019s death suggested the action of the opera was a series of flashbacks, but that was clumsily done. Why did everyone move extra slowly, often backing out, even when suggesting a rewind didn\u2019t fit? Why an utter lack of human contact? Why a setting of a bare room with a few doors and a meteor hanging over it? All of this was slow and heavy-handed and dragged down the drama.<\/p>\n

Characters plodded by in a framed area at the back of the stage. They seemed to represent Boccanegra\u2019s memories though sometimes characters had just been up front. (And they didn\u2019t interact \u2018in the frame\u2019 either.) The characters mostly ignored each other which stripped away any visual support for music that is very much about human communication. This opera\u2019s narrative is famously complicated and piling on more confusion didn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n

My daughter, who was a theater major at university, simply closed her eyes for much of the evening to shut out the production and reported that the music sounded better. She was right and there was plenty to appreciate.<\/p>\n

In the title role, Mongolian baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat (who delivered a memorable Rigoletto last season) produced the long, supple lines and plush textures that Boccanegra\u2019s music requires. Tirelessly, he created a solid center for the voices around him. Italian soprano Eleonora Buratto as Amelia made a company debut to cherish. In Buratto\u2019s arias her glorious vocal clarity and expressiveness rose above the woebegone direction, and she had the power to stand out in the big ensembles.<\/p>\n

As Jacopo Fiesco, bass-baritone Christian Van Horn (a San Francisco regular who most recently sang Escamillo in 2024\u2019s Carmen) created a noble counterpart to Boccanegra with fluid and insinuating vocal lines. In his company debut, Las Vegas-born Joshua Gurrero delivered vocal beauty with his lyric tenor to bring life to Gabriele Adorno, Amelia\u2019s suitor.<\/p>\n

Baritones Aleksey Bogdanov (Paolo Albiani) and Gabriel Natal-B\u00e1ez (as Pietro, his sidekick), both current Adler fellows, vigorously voiced the buildup to their plot to murder Boccanegra. The chorus was the usual vital cog in the proceedings, especially in the Council Chamber Scene which crackled with drama and musical precision. It was the evening\u2019s highlight, the combined efforts of Kim, the orchestra, the chorus and the soloists transcending for 20 minutes all the negative aspects of the production. They delivered a sensational conclusion to Act I.<\/p>\n

If only the rest of the direction had helped instead of hindered, this could have been an unforgettable Simon Boccanegra.<\/p>\n

Harvey Steiman<\/p>\n

Featured Image: Christian Van Horn (Fiesco) and Amartuvshin Enkhbat (Boccanegra) confront each other without looking as a meteor looms \u00a9 Cory Weaver\/SFO<\/p>\n

Production:
Original director \u2013 Claus Guth
Revival director \u2013 Katherine M. Carter
Production design \u2013 Christian Schmidt
Original lighting design \u2013 Wolfgang G\u00f6bbel
Revival lighting design \u2013 Justin A. Partier
Chorus director \u2013 John Keene<\/p>\n

Cast:
Simon Boccanegra \u2013 Amartuvshin Enkhbat
Amelia\/Maria \u2013 Eleonora Buratto
Jacopo Fiesco \u2013 Christian Van Horn
Gabriele Adorno \u2013 Joshua Guerrero
Paolo Albiani \u2013 Aleksey Bogdanov
Pietro \u2013 Gabriel Natal-B\u00e1ez<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"United States Verdi, Simon Boccanegra: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of San Francisco Opera \/ Eun Sun Kim (conductor).…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-474718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}