Simon Boccanegra at SF Opera

Verdi's 1857 opera Simon Boccanegra, revised and expanded by the composer in 1881, has always been an overcomplicated, narrative mess but there is also lots to love. It starts strangely with a half-hour prologue that sounds like a Russian opera with baritones and basses butting heads in 14th century Genoa. There is also a long, magnificent father-daughter duet scene bathed in love rather than the controlling creepiness of Rigoletto, and in an unusual twist the soprano heroine and tenor hero are still alive and happily united at the finale. Above all, the music is Verdi at his considerable best, and it's a joy to report that the orchestra under Music Director Eun Sun Kim sounded magnificent throughout, and the large cast was superb, without any weaknesses. (All production photos are by Cory Weaver.)

However, the 20-year-old staging by German director Claus Guth for the Hamburg Opera was Euro Konzept at its most deliberately alienating and ridiculous. The overarching premise is that Simon Boccanegra, dying from an assassin's poison, reviews his life in his last moments, so there are people walking backwards, supernumerary doubles, a giant mirror and painting acting as transparent scrims, and a meteor peeking through the roof of a palatial room that serves as the unit set.

The prologue is set in the midst of political warfare between the upper-class patricians and the lower-class plebians, culminating in Boccanegra's elevation to Doge, ruler of the city-state Genoa. It's impossible to distinguish between the warring groups because the colorless, modern costumes all look the same. Baritone Gabriel Natal-Baez made a fine main stage debut as Pietro, taking orders from Paolo, the politically scheming bad guy sung forcefully by Aleksey Bogdanov. The title character is sung by the Mongolian baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat, who is not a particularly expressive actor but whose voice is perfection in this role.

The two young lovers, Amelia and Gabriele, were sung by Italian soprano Elenora Buratto and U.S. tenor Joshua Guerrero in their dual debuts at the house. Buratto began a little unsteadily but recovered quickly for a splendid performance while Guerrero was a lovely surprise with a creamy, even, surpassingly beautiful voice that helped balance out all those bass-baritones.

Christian Van Horn played the major character of the exiled patrician Fiesco (sitting above), grandfather to Amelia, and mortal enemy of Simon. Vocally it was a great performance but the director had everyone walking about the stage like expressionless zombies, so there wasn't much he could do dramatically. This was particularly irritating during the scene where Simon and Amelia realize that they are a long-lost father and daughter duo after 25 years of separation, and instead of embracing and acting out the joy of the reunion, they awkwardly walked around a huge table in a trance, ruining the emotional moment.

The long first act ends with the Council Scene which was added to the opera during the 1881 revision, and it's a thrilling finale. A mob storms the palace, there's a debate about whether to go to war with Venice or live in peace, and Simon gives a stirring speech about healing old wounds and uniting as one people. The chorus sounded great, but none of the staging made much sense.

When the curtain was raised after intermission, the symbolic meteor had moved halfway from roof to floor, and the audience burst into spontaneous laughter at the absurdity. More achingly beautiful music was sung while dastardly plots and hopeful reconciliations were being devised.

At the end of act two, the curtain came down with a supertitle advisory for the audience to stay in their seats for a brief pause. This was the third scene change of the evening involving the same un-brief pause, all so the roof and meteor could be swapped out for new positioning. The audience laughed again as the black object was now plopped on the floor, just like the dying Simon whose poison in Act Two was finally kicking in during Act Three.

It was a treat hearing this favorite opera live again after an absence of a few decades, but the cold, grey Northern German take on a warm, colorful Italian subject just felt perverse, and I missed the beauty of the Mediterranean Sea that is woven throughout the score. There are only two more performances left, due to the orchestral strike that delayed the season's opening, and it's very much worth attending to listen to the opera in such a sturdy musical performance. Just close your eyes and think of Italy.