Verdi's Simon Boccanegra

After doing all of the reading I could before seeing Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, I missed the performance.

This was not true of Moiya or Kelvin, who saw it in different venues -- one in Salmon Arm and the other at the Odeon Cineplex in Calgary. I heard some dialogue between the second and third act, and heard it on the radio as I was driving home Saturday evening. I also heard a few arias before my car drove up into the driveway. Nice, but nothing like what it would have been visually.

Moiya called a few minutes after I got in the house to say it was the best opera ever. I asked her, "Even better than Carmen". She replied, "Carmen is well known. This opera isn't, and it had the most marvellous tenor."

I replied, "The world's best. Placido Domingo. I have never seen him on the screen." Moiya hadn't caught his name, but she did catch the intensity of the singing and the complexity of the themes.

Kelvin didn't say much about his experience, only, "I am going again to the encore, March 30."

I guess that really says it all, except for Anthony Tommasini's review.

Arta