Verdi: Simon Boccanegra, Royal Opera House, 13.05.08

Cond. John Eliot Gardiner, dir. Ian Judge. 101st performance at the ROH.

Paolo Albiani - Marco Vratogna
Pietro - Krzysztof Szumanski
Simon Boccanegra - Lucio Gallo
Jacopo Fiesco - Feruccio Furlanetto (replacing Orlin Anastassov)
Amelia Grimaldi - Natalia Ushakova
Gabriele Adorno - Marcus Haddock
Amelia's maidservant - Louise Armit
Captain - Elliot Goldie

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I expect the Royal Opera House Orchestra to start off shakily at best and sometimes just badly. Thank goodness John Eliot Gardiner had knocked them into form! The opening bars of the prologue were mysterious and beautiful and the strings sounded perfect from the start, handling many phrases with the right degree of delicacy.

The staging was beautiful, but with only a single set for the whole opera, I felt that there was a little lack of energy. The bizarre lowering of a tree so that it hung over the stage and a similar slow lowering of broken part of the palazzo during a mob scene were the only really off moments. Otherwise, lots of firelight torches in the dark added a mysterious touch to the political intrigue.

Ushakova started weakly in the role of Amelia, but she quickly gained confidence and was singing well by the end. One of the highlights of the performance was Gallo in the role of Simon who couldn't quite sing until the end of the opera; he was replaced by an understudy singing at front of stage for the final act, miming on stage. Somehow it worked, and the show went on to a compelling conclusion.

Vratogna was one of the best performers on stage in the role of Paolo; he brought drama to his exit from the mob scene in which it is discovered that he has orchestrated the attempted abduction of Amelia, and was one of the better actors. Gallo and Ushakova did a lot of striding around the stage, and they didn't have too many options on where to go since it remained the same throughout.

I think it would be fair to say that none of the singers performed outstandingly, but the performance came together and was compellingly interesting from start to finish - even throughout the long first half.

In particular, I thought Gardiner did well to carry on through a quiet passage with that ubiquitous Nokia ring tone echoing on endlessly.

Overall: **** - A good show!
Audience: * - Sit still, shut up, and turn your phone off. If it does go off, turn it off quickly, DON'T LET IT RING!