Proms: Simon Boccanegra (again)
Jul. 18th, 2010 11:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylAnother proms opera, this time the RoH's production of Simon Boccanegra with the same stellar cast as last week. The performance was every bit as good as the last one but, having mugged up on the piece and its libretto since watching it last week on BBC4, I felt like I got more out of it.
The performance also featured a rather wonderful interval piece on the opera which managed to be both interesting and wryly funny. Roger Parker was on particularly fine form. He described Verdi's conservatism as increasing in proportion to the amount of land he owned and described Verdi as having a teflon political reputation. He described Boccanegra as a monster, but added that because he had the perspicacity to carry out all his misdeeds in the 25 years gap between the end of the prologue and the start of act I, the audience is shielded from this knowledge and can still feel sympathy for him when he struggles to come to terms with the restoration of his lost daughter...
The performance also featured a rather wonderful interval piece on the opera which managed to be both interesting and wryly funny. Roger Parker was on particularly fine form. He described Verdi's conservatism as increasing in proportion to the amount of land he owned and described Verdi as having a teflon political reputation. He described Boccanegra as a monster, but added that because he had the perspicacity to carry out all his misdeeds in the 25 years gap between the end of the prologue and the start of act I, the audience is shielded from this knowledge and can still feel sympathy for him when he struggles to come to terms with the restoration of his lost daughter...
