Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Simon Boccanegra, Opera in a Prologue and 3 Acts
Simon Boccanegra: Tito Gobbi (baritone)
Amelia: Orianna Santunione (soprano)
Gabriele: Renato Cioni (tenor)
Fiesco: Joseph Rouleau (bass)
Other cast beneath review
Chorus and Orchestra of Royal Opera House, Covent Garden/James Lockhart
rec. 10 December 1965, BBC Studios, London
Texts and translations not provided
Reviewed as a download
CRQ Editions CRQ 658 [131]

Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra had to wait until 1948 for a staging in the UK. The production (d. Moody, c. Mudie) that opened at Sadler’s Wells that October was a huge success for the company. Arnold Matters played the corsair turned Doge superbly and was joined by Joyce Gartside and James Johnston, singing in English, obviously. HMV made 78s of some of the scenes and the BBC relayed a later performance from the following season containing much the same cast (I think tenor Johnston’s place may have been taken by Rowland Jones). Covent Garden must have noticed the excitement on Rosebury Avenue, up there in Islington, but it was not until 1965 that they considered mounting their own Simon Boccanegra.

Its main instigator was Tito Gobbi who not only sang the protagonist but also directed the production. By the mid-sixties, he had been singing in London for over fifteen years. His voice was beginning to show signs of wear, yet his presence on stage and his artistry and prowess in the roles in which he excelled were still in huge demand. Gobbi had learnt his art on the Italian stage of the late 1930s. Through the 40s, war notwithstanding, he began to assume bigger roles and receive better notices. With his honey-toned voice coupled with that characteristic virile vibrato, magnetic stage presence and pleasant countenance he was also much in demand as a film star. We in Britain fell in love with him in The Glass Mountain, a movie from 1949. In fact, much of the audience at his concert and opera appearances in the 1950s were “Gobbi-soxers”, adoring young fans, often young and female, and probably quite unused to the conventions of the opera house.

When La Scala came to the Garden for their famous flying visit in September 1950, Gobbi was in the cast of L’elisir d’amore as Belcore with Carosio, Tagliavini and Tajo. He also sang a couple of Fords in Falstaff alongside Gino Bechi. He could be heard again in perhaps less auspicious surroundings at the Stoll on Kingsway in 1952, singing Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Scarpia to the Tosca of Kyra Vayne. The following year he went on a nationwide concert tour that ended at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall. Before the Simon Boccanegra of 1965 I have traced him singing the following roles at Covent Garden: Renato (Ballo), Scarpia, Rigoletto, Posa (Don Carlo), Macbeth, Falstaff, Iago (Otello), Don Giovanni, Figaro (Mozart) and the double baritone assignment in Il Trittico. Quite the list! The period covers the Kubelik era (they had a huge spat one time, resulting in Gobbi being fired from a run of performances), an interregnum period, and the Solti regime.

The run in December 1965 that saw Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra finally staged was mostly conducted by Oliviero De Fabritiis, an Italian of huge experience. The final two shows in the series were conducted by Scot James Lockhart. When Lockhart died early this year, I wrote an appreciation for MWI of his life. You can imagine my delight when my friend David Patmore of CRQ Editions told me he had sourced this recording, which is conducted by James, and was going to make it available on his label. Radio broadcasts turn up all the time; I suppose with copyright law on sound broadcasts being fifty years as I write, plenty more may show up over the next few years and be legitimately released to the public. This one is different, though.

In-between shows on 9^th and 11^th December, the whole company, orchestra, chorus and cast moved from Bow Street to the BBC studios in Maida Vale and made this recording under studio conditions. Thus, it is not a live stage recording. I believe there was only one other time that happened with a Covent Garden staging. The original BBC reel-to-reel tapes have been used in the records, and the opera is introduced at each scene by a lovely BBC chap in the mandatory Received Pronunciation of the period. 

Partnering Tito Gobbi in the cast is the Amelia of Orianna Santunione. Aged thirty-one at the time, her career was to be mainly based at Italian houses. She sang all the great spinto roles into the late 1970s. She made no records to my knowledge, being hitherto known only through live tapings. Tenor Renato Cioni is known for his partnership with Joan Sutherland, both live and on a couple of LP sets. He sang in Covent Garden’s Rigoletto of 1962, visited the Edinburgh Festival with the San Carlo of Naples in 1963 (he sang in Luisa Miller) and famously took the role of Cavaradossi in the 1964 Royal Opera House production of Tosca mounted for Callas. Fiesco is sung by stalwart bass Joseph Rouleau.

Tito Gobbi’s best years on record were the 1950s. From the series of 78s he did for HMV in 1950 (I like the Forza/Otello coupling) right through to the Roman Otello in the Summer of 1960, he made one after another of indispensable records. When I asked a couple of my MWI colleagues what their favourite Gobbi roles were on vinyl they found it very hard to pick. Eventually RMo went for Falstaff (although pining for the unrealised Macbeth) and MP for his Iago in that Otello. Mine is a cheat (as the writer of this review, I get to do that), a live performance of Don Giovanni with Furtwängler (Salzburg, 1950). We all agree though that Gobbi’s Simon Boccanegra, made in Rome in 1957 is outstanding. Unbelievably given the date, the EMI team had the equipment to record only in mono. The record (I think) was issued on five sides originally, then tampered with to be on six. Some re-issues are labelled as being stereo. Even the first CD release is so named. I don’t know if this was an artificial stereo re-recording that EMI sanctioned but I am certain the master tapes are in mono only. Despite this, it is a great version of the work. Gobbi sings with Victoria de los Ángeles, Giuseppe Campora and his brother-in-law Boris Christoff.

Gobbi’s rendition of the role for the BBC in 1965 is not as fine. By this time, his voice was showing signs of wear and tear. He had made Nabucco for Decca, a couple of months before this recording and you can hear it on that set too, I am afraid. However, his mastery as a vocal actor, his diction and the sheer dramatic force of his reading are indisputable. It is an intense portrayal, furious sometimes, heart-melting at times. Boccanegra is a high role and it suits Gobbi well. His voice tends to disappear in the lower ranges and can be dry. At the top he is more comfortable but tends to sing a little loudly at times, perhaps to cover some strain with anything above middle D. At the end of the prologue, as he is about to enter la magion de’Fieschi, he shakes with expectation: “quale mistero!”. When we hear him again in despair about to be acclaimed Doge he sees phantoms. “Via, fantasmi! Via!” is declaimed with gusto, Macbeth-like.

In the first scene of Act 1 with Amelia he is lovely. Their recognition scene is very nicely characterised. Incidentally the production had the scene end here. That rapid parlante exchange between Paolo and Pietro is cut. The wonderful old Cetra recording did the same. Act 1 concludes with the council chamber scene. Gobbi is a bit rough-sounding at the beginning, growling a little at forte but it is not long before we hear the old charm. In phrases like “Amelia, di’ come foste rapita” we hear how he can colour a seemingly innocuous phrase with such portent. It might resemble Rigoletto, Scarpia or Posa on the stave but it is pure Gobbi in the hearing. The famous set piece “Plebe, patrizi, popolo” goes well for him, his flickering vibrato glowing with colour and virility all the way up to the height of “e vo gridando: amor”. His colleagues Santunione and Cioni are superb here as well and this helps. Cioni’s “Amelia è salva” is fresh and full bodied. Santunione’s “Pace! t’ispiri un senso di patria carità” pure toned with a genuine trill. When Gobbi forces Paolo to lead the curse, we hear his vast stage experience to full effect. “E tu, ripeti il giuro” turns Paolo (and us) to ice with its ferocity.

Gobbi continues to dominate the stage throughout the final two acts. I found him superb in his final solo, alone in his apartments, with the poison he drank beginning to take its mortal toll. The subsequent scene with the Fiesco of Joseph Rouleau is all you could wish for, as is his final blessing “Gran Dio il benedice”. The BBC tape at the end here is only just hanging on. Snap, crackle, pop and plenty of wobble. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world, though!

Orianna Santunione was admired by the Covent Garden audience of the time. One of the reviews praised the “youthful animation of her bearing”. She is first heard in “Come in quest’ora bruna” which follows some lovely tone painting from Lockhart and his players. I really feel the breeze coming in off the Ligurian Sea and the dawn breaking. The aria goes reasonably well but it is nothing spectacular. She has a generically Mediterranean timbre, warm and resonant and she can thin her tone down nicely under full control. She makes a fine B flat and descends correctly making the required diminuendo. In the ensuing duet with Gabriele, both offer singing of refinement and nuance. They are exciting too in their closing stretta.

When she is on stage with Boccanegra she is even more impressive. I found her singing here more relaxed and affecting. “Orfanella il tetto umile” is lovely. The warm flicker in her voice and its natural vibrato is well caught. Gobbi matches her dynamics perfectly and the recognition moments are touching. Harold Rosenthal, longtime editor of Opera magazine always maintained the best Amelias were also great Aidas and Toscas. He meant singers like Rethberg, Milanov and Tebaldi. The role does require a good pair of lungs it is true. Santunione certainly has the resources for the part. She is good at both extremes of her range too, especially impressive at the bottom. I love the way she can float her phrases and the gradations of light and shade she is able to conjure. She also displays moments of the grand manner with a warm supported sweep, especially in ensemble pieces.

Like Gobbi, Santunione is especially strong in the last couple of acts of the opera. I especially enjoyed her second duet with Gabriele in Act 2 and obviously the trio that ends that act. That great set piece, one of the best in the work by the way: “Perdon, perdon, Amelia”, is dominated by the tenor of Renato Cioni. It is a lovely version, if for me not outclassing that famous side, once available on a cheap plum label HMV 78, featuring top tenor and master butcher James Johnston and colleagues.

Cioni for me is one of the great joys of this set. He sings with an open vowel, uncovered tone. He does not force, and he makes a noble Adorno, which of course is entirely appropriate. As well as expounding on his ideal Amelia, Rosenthal reminds us that the role has been taken most notably by tenors of the stature of Tamagno and Martinelli. More Otello, more Radames than Rodolfo or Duke of Mantua. Well, Cioni is of the latter category and to my ears does not come over badly at all.

The purity of his timbre and its honesty is ever heard, like in his encounter with Fiesco in Act 1. He sings the great scene of recitative and aria beginning at “O inferno!…Amelia qui!” at proper pitch. He is actually a little flat in places, but it is a performance that was acclaimed at the house sixty years ago, as it would be today. Paolo is sung by Delme Bryn-Jones. His big moment is the beginning of Act 2, and he delivers here when it matters most. We finally hear him, under guard marching off to his date with the bipenne (double-headed axe), “Orrore!”. Very dark. When James Lockhart returned to Simon Boccanegra in his days in charge at Welsh National Opera, Delme Bryn-Jones sang the Doge for him.

I was a little disappointed with the Fiesco of Rouleau. I didn’t feel he was comfortable in the famous aria he has in the Prologue and his pronunciation of some of the text is curious. He had a good deep bass but struggled at the top; I hear a gear change at the upper reaches of his range. There are some highlights nonetheless, like his scene with Gabriele in Act 1 scene 1 and his final reconciliation at the end with the pirate king. Christoff, Gobbi’s usual partner in Simon Boccanegra, started a run of Boris Godunov at Covent Garden just as this series of performances of Verdi came to an end. He did actually appear as Fiesco in a later revival.

James Lockhart, as I have already hinted, gives a glorious account of the score. The company at the time was Solti’s. He had in fact recently taken them into the studio that Summer to record Don Carlo in a John Culshaw Decca production. They were a decent band. Lockhart, worked as a repetiteur and I believe must have prepared this Boccanegra for De Fabritiis. It is wonderful to have this memento of his work at Covent Garden.

Gobbi’s production was revived four times I think but he never again sang the title role in the UK. Instead, operagoers heard John Shaw, Peter Glossop and Ingvar Wixell. It was very much a stand-and-deliver staging I gather, with singers just being asked to face the front and let fly. The press criticised the wooden gestures. I suppose after Visconti’s Don Carlos, some critics expected more. 

The sound of the BBC tape is mono. There are some dropouts and print-through, but it really isn’t bad at all. In the prologue, Pietro is doing his polling day canvassing, the populace agrees to support Boccanegra. “Tutti” they cry, but it is missing from the tape. There are a couple of other glitches, but it is worth persevering with. The broadcast was made at Christmas time 1965 along with the other studio made production they had waiting. It was a special event, and I don’t believe Covent Garden ever made any other repeat trips to the BBC. For all its shortcomings, we are lucky to have it.

Philip Harrison

Other cast
Paolo: Delme Bryn-Jones (baritone)
Pietro: Victor Godfrey (bass)
Amelia’s Maid: Elizabeth Shelley (mezzo-soprano)
Captain: Daniel McCoshan (tenor)