Simon Boccanegra

Simon Boccanegra

The Delos label's first-ever full-length Italian opera recording, this star-studded current release of Giuseppi Verdi's Simon Boccanegra promises quite the splash among today's opera fans. As Verdi was entering his glorious "late period" (Otello and Falstaff) he wrote and re-worked much of Simon Boccanegra, a work he first tackled in 1857. The opera emerged in 1881 as a powerful masterpiece, although one that has been unfairly neglected, in comparison with Verdi's other operatic masterworks. The glamorous title star Dmitri Hvorostovsky - considered by many the world's greatest Verdi baritone - here realizes his chance to record what he calls "...one of the most complex, deepest characters in the whole baritone repertoire." Joining Hvorostovsky in this studio recording are the kinds of all-star colleagues he deserves: soprano Barbara Frittoli as Amelia, tenor Stefano Secco as Gabriele, bass Ildar Abdrazakov as Fiesco and baritone Marco Caria as Paolo. Constantine Orbelian, "the singer's dream collaborator" (Opera News), leads the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra (Lithuania) and Kaunas State Chorus.