"The play is gloomy because it has to be gloomy, but it is captivating!" was how Giuseppe Verdi described his opera Simon Boccanegra in a letter. It was precisely this gloom, the interweaving of political power struggles and family drama, reflected in the depth of feeling of the characters, that had attracted him to the play by the Spanish romanticist Garcia Gutiérrez, set in the 14th century. In it, the corsair Simon Boccanegra gets himself elected Doge of Genoa - not least so that he can marry his lover Maria from an influential patrician family, with whom he already has a daughter. Her father Jacopo Fiesco, also a fierce political opponent, keeps her locked away from the public in his palace. The fact that Maria dies there and her daughter disappears in an unexplained manner not only incites Fiesco's hatred, but also stirs up the political conflict between the opposing parties anew. Simon Boccanegra stands chronologically and stylistically between Verdi's great successes Rigoletto, La traviata, Il trovatore and his late work. First performed at the Venetian opera house La Fenice in 1857, he radically reworked the work almost 25 years later for its new production at La Scala in Milan in 1881.
Text source and further information about this event: http://www.staatstheater-mainz.com/web/veranstaltungen/oper18-19/simon-boccanegra
