Verdi: Simon Boccanegra
Thomas Hampson (Simon Boccanegra), Joseph Calleja (Gabriele Adorno), Kristine Opolais (Amelia/Maria), Carlo Colombara (Fiesco), Luca Pisaroni (Paolo)
Wiener Symphoniker & Wiener Singakademie, Massimo Zanetti
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 16th September 2013
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Gramophone Magazine, January 2014, Editor's Choice
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Presto Favourites, Recommended Recording
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...
Verdi: Simon Boccanegra
Thomas Hampson (Simon Boccanegra), Joseph Calleja (Gabriele Adorno), Kristine Opolais (Amelia/Maria), Carlo Colombara (Fiesco), Luca Pisaroni (Paolo)
Wiener Symphoniker & Wiener Singakademie, Massimo Zanetti
Purchase product
Awards:
-
Presto Recording of the Week, 16th September 2013
-
Gramophone Magazine, January 2014, Editor's Choice
-
Presto Favourites, Recommended Recording
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...
About
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.
Contents and tracklist
- Luca Pisaroni (bass-baritone), Thomas Hampson (baritone), Igor Bakan (bass-baritone), Carlo Colombara (bass), Joseph Calleja (tenor), Andrew Owens (tenor), Kristine Opolais (soprano), Gaia Petrone (mezzo-soprano)
- Wiener Singakademie, Wiener Symphoniker
- Massimo Zanetti
- Recorded: 2013-04-12
- Recording Venue: Wiener Konzerthaus, Wien
Spotlight on this release
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Giuseppe Verdi
14th Feb 2015
Katherine attempts to whittle her list of favourite Verdi recordings into double figures…
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New Verdi releases from Jonas Kaufmann and others
16th Sep 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.
Awards and reviews
-
Presto Recording of the Week16th September 2013
-
Gramophone MagazineJanuary 2014Editor's Choice
-
Presto FavouritesRecommended Recording
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
