Verdi: Simon Boccanegra

Hampson is, as always, a searching interpreter, aware of the meaning and possible ambiguities of every phrase he sings; but his voice is not a classic Verdi baritone...The only principal to meet... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2014, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 16th Sep 2013
Catalogue No: 4785354
Label: Decca
Length: 2 hours 11 minutes

Presto Recording of the Week

16th September 2013
Gramophone Magazine

January 2014

Editor's Choice
Presto Favourites

Recommended Recording

Verdi: Simon Boccanegra

Work length2:11:27

$24.65

$33.35

$59.45

Joseph Calleja (tenor), Luca Pisaroni (bass-baritone), Carlo Colombara (bass), Gaia Petrone (mezzo-soprano), Thomas Hampson (baritone), Andrew Owens (tenor), Igor Bakan (bass-baritone), Kristine Opolais (soprano)
Wiener Singakademie, Wiener Symphoniker
Massimo Zanetti
Recorded: 2013-04-12
Recording Venue: Wiener Konzerthaus, Wien

Preludio. "Che dicesti?"

Track length6:36

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$1.15

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"L'altra magion vedete?"

Track length2:54

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"A te l'estremo addio" - "Il lacerato spirito"

Track length5:03

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"Suona ogni labbro il mio nome"

Track length6:11

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"Oh, de'Fieschi implacata, orrida razza"

Track length3:56

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Preludio

Track length2:07

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"Come in quest'ora bruna"

Track length4:06

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"Cielo di stelle orbato"

Track length7:08

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"Propizio ei giunge!"

Track length4:20

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"Il Doge vien"

Track length3:38

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"Orfanelle il tetto umile" "Figlia! ... a tal nome io palpito"

Track length9:06

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"Che rispose?"

Track length1:14

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"Messeri, il re di Tartaria vi porge"

Track length6:56

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"Ferischi!" - "Ameila!"

Track length0:54

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"Amelia, di come fosti rapita"

Track length2:36

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"Plebe! Patrizi! Popolo!..."Piango su voi"

Track length5:11

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"Ecco la spada"..."Sia maledetto!"

Track length4:33

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"Quei due vedesti?"

Track length2:20

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"Prigoniero in qual loco m'adduci?"

Track length1:43

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"Udisti? - Vi disegno!" - "Sento avvampar nell'anima" - "Cielo pietoso, rendila"

Track length5:17

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"Tu qui?" ... "Amelia!"

Track length4:17

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"Figlia?" ... "Si afflitto, o padre mio?"

Track length5:45

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"Oh! Amelia ... ami ... un nemico"..."Perdono, Amelia"

Track length6:46

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"All'armi, all'armi, o Liguri"

Track length1:18

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"Evviva il Doge!"

Track length6:48

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"M'ardon le tempia" - "Come un fantasima Fiesco t'appar"

Track length6:52

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"Piango, perché mi parla"

Track length3:48

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"Chi veggo?"

Track length2:07

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"Gran Dio, li benedici"

Track length7:57

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About
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Favourites, Giuseppe Verdi

Katherine attempts to whittle her list of favourite Verdi recordings into double figures…

Recording of the Week, New Verdi releases from Jonas Kaufmann and others

16th September 2013

The German tenor brings ‘nuanced psychological drama* to a collection of portraits including a foretaste of Otello, whilst Thomas Hampson is profoundly moving as a ‘care-worn and conflicted’ Simon Boccanegra.

In a major release in Verdi year, Decca's star tenor Joseph Calleja makes his first major opera release in a lead role, singing Gabriele Adorno in a stunning new Simon Boccanegra for Verdi's bicentenary year.

Calleja sings Gabriele Adorno opposite Thomas Hampson's Simon Boccanegra in a live concert performance recorded at the Vienna Konzerthaus. The first-class cast also includes Latvian soprano Kristine Opolais as Amelia, Luca Pisaroni as Paolo and Carlo Colombara as Fiesco. Top-league Italian conductor Massimo Zanetti leads the Wiener Symphoniker and Wiener Singakademie.

A star of the Metropolitan Opera New York and a favourite around the world, the Maltese-born Calleja has been receiving extravagant praise at every step of his meteoric career. He stunned audiences with his Nessun dorma at last year's Last Night of the Proms, televised worldwide, and was named Gramophone's "Artist of the Year 2012" at just 34.

Reviews

January 2014

Hampson is, as always, a searching interpreter, aware of the meaning and possible ambiguities of every phrase he sings; but his voice is not a classic Verdi baritone...The only principal to meet every demand of their role is Luca Pisaroni's trenchant Paolo...the performance has a great sense of drama

January 2014

performances that don't just measure up to the recorded history but shine different kinds of light on the opera...Pisaroni delivers one of his strongest recorded performances so far...now, in his maturity, [Hampson] can emit a true Doge roar...his Lieder-like sense of detail reveals the role in three dimensions with great concision and no excessive fussing with the vocal line.

February 2014

One hears first-rate singing from all five leading soloists...[Hampson] is particularly efficacious in Boccanegra's introspective moments...Calleja is superb...Fiesco is sung in firm and focused dark tones by Carlo Colombara, making the old man the strong figure he should be...Pisaroni does admirably.

Though the voice may be lighter than Verdi baritones of yore (such as Piero Cappuccilli on Abbado's 1971 recording) Thomas Hampson brings lieder-like insight and quiet authority to the role of the Doge; his son-in-law Luca Pisaroni is insidious as Paolo, whilst Joseph Calleja brings the house down as Gabriele Adorno. Massimo Zanetti conjures terrific light and shade from the Wiener Symphoniker.

16th September 2013

Hampson is superb: lithe and youthful as the swashbuckler of the Prologue, audibly care-worn and conflicted in the opera proper - and the recognition-scene with his daughter will make your eyes prickle...[Pisaroni] oozes subtle, uncaricatured menace...But the real dramatic lynchpin is the orchestra.

13th October 2013

those who want a version...with modern singers won’t be disappointed by Thomas Hampson..., Kristine Opolais’s Amelia — both light voices for their roles, but utterly musical — Carlo Colombara’s booming, idiomatic Fiesco and, above all, Joseph Calleja’s patrician, thrillingly sung Adorno.

11th October 2013

[Hampson] brings his sharp intellectual focus to bear on the contrast between the private man and the public figure...Ranged against him are Carlo Colombara's arrogant, cavernous-sounding Fiesco, and Luca Pisaroni's alarming Paolo, arguably the scariest on disc...[Calleja] is outstanding as Gabriele Adorno

Verdi: Simon Boccanegra

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Favourites, Giuseppe Verdi

Recording of the Week, New Verdi releases from Jonas Kaufmann and others