Plácido Domingo sings Verdi's Simon Boccanegra at the Palau de les Arts

Lluís Pasqual is the author of this production with scenery by Ezio Frigerio, costumes by Franca Squarciapino and lighting by Albert Faura.

Guanqun Yu, Ivan Magrì, Vitali Kovaliov, Gevorg Hakobyan and Sergei Artamonov complete the cast of the production

Valencia. Plácido Domingo stars in Giuseppe Verdi's Simon Boccanegra at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, which premieres next Thursday, March 27, at 8:00 p.m.

The singer, director, and artistic manager takes on his sixth role on the stage of the Valencian arts center, where he has previously performed Cyrano de Bergerac in Franco Alfano's opera of the same name, Oreste in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride , Siegmund in Wagner's Die Walküre , Athanaël in Massenet's Thaïs , and Francesco Foscari in Verdi's I due Foscari . Evelino Pidó, who conducted Domingo in his last performance in Vienna as Simon Boccanegra, will assume the musical direction of the Verdi opera in Valencia.

Acclaimed for his interpretations of Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi, Evelino Pidò has been invited to perform at major European opera houses, including Covent Garden, the Paris Opera, and the Vienna State Opera. A leading conductor for opera's great divas and Angela Gheorghiu's favorite, he has worked with stars such as Roberto Alagna, Nathalie Dessay, Elăna Garană, Anna Netrebko, and Rolando Villazón. His recent successes with Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur in Vienna and Rossini's Guillaume Tell in Brussels precede his arrival in Valencia.

Jordi Bernàcer takes the podium for the final performance of Simon Boccanegra on April 9th. This is the second time the maestro from Alcoy has conducted opera in the Main Hall of the Palau de les Arts, after Massenet's Manon , and the third production in which he has conducted the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, following Chapí's El rey que rabió at the Peralada Festival.

The Valencian arts center is reviving its production of Simon Boccanegra , which premiered in March 2007 during its first season. Lluís Pasqual is the mastermind behind the staging of this opera, the first Verdi work performed in the Calatrava building, with set design by Ezio Frigerio, costumes by Oscar winner Franca Squarciapino, and lighting by Albert Faura.

The founder and director of the Teatre Lliure approaches the figure of the corsair Boccanegra, who became the first Doge of Genoa, from an intimate perspective, with one premise: to focus on the score. “In Simon Boccanegra, all of Verdi is present. The music is extraordinary, with enormous depth of feeling, made up of silences, of great density,” Pasqual points out.

Pasqual's approach relies on Frigerio's abstract and clean set design, Squarciapino's historicist costumes, and Faura's lighting to concentrate the light on the characters.

Distribution

The cast of Simon Boccanegra features the voices of Chinese soprano Guanqun Yu (Amelia Grimaldi) and Italian tenor Ivan Magrì (Gabriele Adorno), who both sang with Domingo in Verdi's I due Foscari last season. The ensemble is rounded out by Swiss-Ukrainian bass Vitali Kovaliov (Jacopo Fiesco), Armenian baritone Gevorg Hakobyan (Paolo Albiani), Russian bass Sergei Artamonov, and artists from the Centre de Perfeccionament Plácido Domingo: Chiara Osella (Maid) and Valentino Buzza (Captain).

Born in Shandong, China, Guanqun Yu trained at the Shanghai Conservatory and received masterclasses from Carlo Bergonzi, Renée Fleming, and Éva Marton. After winning the 2012 Operalia-Plácido Domingo Competition, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in New York as Leonora in Il trovatore , and will soon return to the Metropolitan Opera to sing the role of Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte . At the Palau de les Arts in Madrid, she has sung Lucrezia in I due Foscari with Plácido Domingo and Desdemona in Otello.

Since his debut as Ernesto in Don Pasquale in 2006, Ivan Magrì has starred in, among others, Manon Lescaut (Genoa), Lucia di Lammermoor (Bologna), Marino Faliero (Bergamo), I puritani (Bratislava), L'elisir d'amore (Rome), and Werther (Tallinn). A graduate of the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan and winner of several competitions, the tenor from Catania has sung at the Valencian arts center in I due Foscari (Jacopo), Rigoletto (Duke of Mantua), and La Traviata (Alfredo).

Bass Vitali Kovaliov, considered one of the most outstanding performers in his vocal range, will appear at the Palau de les Arts. He has sung more than 40 roles, including Verdi's Attila, Banco, Barbarossa, Fiesco, Filippo II, Padre Guardiano, Procida, Ramfis, Walter, and Zaccaria. The Swiss-Ukrainian singer performs at theaters such as Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, and the Vienna State Opera. Following his acclaimed debut in Der Ring des Nibelungen (Wotan) in Los Angeles, Daniel Barenboim invited him to sing in Die Walküre at La Scala.

Gevorg Hakobyan returns to Valencia, where he has performed, under the direction of Lorin Maazel, as Amonasro ( Aida ), Alfio ( Cavalleria rusticana ), and Sharpless ( Madama Butterfly ). A soloist with the Yerevan Opera since 2003, he won first prize and the gold medal at the Pavel Lisitsian Competition in 2008.

Sergei Artamonov sings for the first time at the Valencian arts center. A soloist with the Novaya Opera in Moscow since 2003, in recent seasons he has sung in Don Giovanni and Aida in Santiago, Chile, La Bohème at La Fenice, Verdi's Norma and Requiem at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, Lucia di Lammermoor at La Scala, Carmen at the Bolshoi Theatre, and Nabucco and Aida at the Verona Arena.

Verdi's Simon Boccanegra will premiere on March 27. In addition to the premiere, the Valencian arts center has scheduled four more performances of this work on March 30 and April 3, 6, and 9.

Simon Boccanegra

Simon Boccanegra is an opera with music in a prologue and three acts, with music by Giuseppe Verdi and a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, Giuseppe Montanelli, and Arrigo Boito (who revised the libretto), based on a play of the same name by Antonio García Gutiérrez. The original version premiered at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice on March 12, 1857. Due to difficulties with the original plot, a revised version, with changes by Arrigo Boito, was first performed at La Scala in Milan on March 24, 1881.