[Met Performance] CID:216310
Simon Boccanegra {54} Metropolitan Opera House: 10/17/1968.
(Debuts: Rita Orlandi-Malaspina, Rod MacWherter, Ann Florio
Review)
Metropolitan Opera House
October 17, 1968
SIMON BOCCANEGRA {54}
Giuseppe Verdi--Francesco Maria Piave/Arrigo Boito
Simon Boccanegra........Cornell MacNeil
Amelia..................Rita Orlandi-Malaspina [Debut]
Gabriele Adorno.........Richard Tucker
Jacopo Fiesco...........Nicolai Ghiaurov
Paolo Albiani...........Sherrill Milnes
Pietro..................Paul Plishka
Maid....................Ann Florio [Debut]
Captain.................Rod MacWherter [Debut]
Conductor...............Francesco Molinari-Pradelli
Production..............Margaret Webster
Stage Director..........Nikolaus Lehnhoff
Set designer............Frederick Fox
Costume designer........Motley
Simon Boccanegra received ten performances this season.
Review of Irving Kolodin in the November 2, 1964 issue of the Saturday Review
The evening was operatically rich on both sides of the Lincoln Center Plaza, as it also brought back the Metropolitan's solid production of Verdi's "Simon. Boccanegra." Even without such past performers as Tozzi, Siepi, and Hines, it was strongly cast with Nicolai Ghiaurov ( Fiesco) and Sherrill Milnes (Paolo) new in their roles, balanced by Cornell MacNeil (as Simon) and Richard Tucker (Gabriele). Much of their effort overlapped the happenings in the State Theater, but time and proximity permitted attention to the debut of Rita Orlandi as Amelia. Hers is not yet a diamond of a voice, however rough, but it is the kind of Italian talent one likes to welcome at the Met. That is, both voice and artistry are at the point where contact with demanding standards can smooth rough edges and refine a certain kind of artistic coarseness. There is no guarantee that such will be the ease, but the strength of Orlandi's sound, the fervor latent in its use, suggest a real spinto aptitude. Further comment on "Simon" and Francesco Molinari-Pradelli's conducting of it must await another occasion.