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Back in the Lagoon
GIUSEPPE PENNISI visits La Fenice
for Verdi's 'Simon Boccanegra'
Just a few weeks ago ('Human Tragedy', 5 November 2014) I reviewed Verdi's Simon Boccanegra as the last opera in La Scala's 2013-14 season; there I discussed the long and complex process to reach the opera's third (and normally performed) version in 1881. Now the opera returns to the location of its first version's premiere — La Fenice in Venice on 12 March 1857, this time as the inaugural opera of the 2014-2015 season. As usual, the 1881 third version is being performed. To the best of my memory, the 1857 and 1858 versions have recently had only concert broadcasts, by the BBC in 2001 for the centenary of Verdi's death...
Copyright © 11 December 2014
Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy
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