Massimo Zanetti leads the Wiener Symphoniker and Wiener Singakademie in a live concert performance recorded at the Vienna Konzerthaus. 

The first-class cast includes Thomas Hampson in the title role, Joseph Calleja as Gabriele Adorno, 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 in a live concert performance recorded at the Vienna Konzerthaus.

One of Verdis most compelling works, depicting the personal price of political success; moments of tender intimacy contrasted against the fiery drama of state politics and personal enmity.

Critical acclaim:

“To the title-role Hampson brings years of distinguished Verdi singing; now, in his maturity, he can emit a true Doge roar. In the prologue Hampson’s Boccanegra hardly seems like a pirate but later his Lieder-like sense of detail reveals the role in three dimensions with great concision and no excessive fussing with the vocal line.”

David Patrick Stearns – Gramophone

“Boccanegra is played by Thomas Hampson, who brings his sharp intellectual focus to bear on the contrast between the private man and the public figure, and avoids sacrificing the vocal line to the text, as is sometimes his habit in Verdi. The joy, love and – at one crucial point – anger that characterise Boccanegra’s relationship with his daughter are wonderfully done, and there’s a disquietingly vivid sense of physical decline towards the end, when Paolo’s poison begins to take effect.”

Tim Ashley – The Guardian

“. . . Hampson’s interpretation is nothing short of ideal . . .”

Bachtrack.com

Video feature: Verdi’s ‘Simon Boccanegra’ wows Vienna via euronews