The Opera Orchestra of New York continues its 41st season with an opera-in-concert performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra conducted by Music Director Alberto Veronesi at Avery Fisher Hall on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 at 8:00 pm. Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, an opera based on power and treachery and the unbreakable bonds of family, stars Plácido Domingo returning to the Opera Orchestra of New York in the title role with soprano Ana Maria Martinez, making her Opera Orchestra debut as Amelia.
Single tickets priced from $35 to $165 can be purchased online at www.operaorchestrany.org or by calling the Opera Orchestra of New York’s box office at (212) 906-9137.
Plácido Domingo added the title role in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra to his repertoire in 2009 at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. Plácido Domingo went on to perform the role in London, Milan and Madrid, as well as at the Metropolitan Opera during their 2009-10 season. Simon Boccanegra will be Mr. Domingo’s third performance with the Opera Orchestra of New York. He made his debut with the company performing in Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini conducted by Eve Queler in 1973, followed by a performance of Massenet’s Le Cid in 1976.
Simon Boccanegra also stars bass Giacomo Prestia as Fiesco and baritone Marco Caria as Paolo Albiani, both making their Opera Orchestra of New York debuts. Tenor Massimo Giordano, performing the role of Gabriele Adorno, made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Opera Orchestra of New York in 2005 as Wilhelm Meister in Ambroise Thomas’s opera Mignon. This will be the Opera Orchestra’s first performance of Simon Boccanegra.
Alberto Veronesi began his role as Music Director of the Opera Orchestra of New York this season conducting Adriana Lecouvreur at Carnegie Hall. In 2010, he made his Carnegie Hall debut conducting the Opera Orchestra of New York in a double-bill of Massenet’s La Navarraise and Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana. Mr. Veronesi has recorded five albums with Plácido Domingo for Deutsche Grammophon including Puccini’s early opera Edgar, the first-ever commercial recording of Leoncavallo’s I Medici, Giordano’s Fedora, Puccini Rediscovered – a collection of original editions and alternative versions of famous Puccini arias and ensembles, and La Nuit de mai, an album of Leoncavallo songs and arias performed with pianist Lang Lang.
The Opera Orchestra of New York was established in 1971 by Eve Queler, the company’s Conductor Laureate, to present to rarely-heard operas and provide the public with an opportunity to hear them performed in major concert venues. Among the Opera Orchestra’s numerous U.S. premieres are Puccini’s Edgar with Carlo Bergonzi and Renata Scotto; Boito’s Nerone with James Morris and Pablo Elvira; and Smetana’s Libuse with Gabriela Benacková and Paul Plishka. The company also performed the New York premiere of Tchaikovsky’s The Maid of Orleans, with Dolora Zajick and Jorma Hynninen, which was also the American premiere of the Russian language version. The ensemble has also presented works long neglected in New York, such as Wagner’s Rienzi, Verdi’s I Lombardi, Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles, and Catalani’s La Wally. These pioneering efforts have led national opera companies such as the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric and Houston Grand Opera to add to their permanent repertoires works that received their first major modern hearing by The Opera Orchestra of New York including I lombardi, Donizetti’s La Favorita, Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini, Dvo?ák’s Rusalka and Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina.
The Opera Orchestra of New York was also established as a means to identify and foster young operatic talent, providing young singers with an opportunity to rehearse and perform with full orchestra and chorus. The Opera Orchestra of New York has nurtured the talents of Renée Fleming, Aprile Millo, Vivica Genaux, Deborah Voigt, Latonia Moore, Stephen Costello, Michael Fabiano, Bryan Hymel and Eglise Gutiérrez. Other singers who have worked with Opera Orchestra very early in their careers include José Carreras, Barbara Hendricks, Dwayne Croft, Samuel Ramey and James Morris. Singers who made their U.S. or New York debuts with Opera Orchestra include Gabriela Benacková, Stephanie Blythe, Olga Borodina, Ghena Dimitrova, Jane Eaglen, Carlo Guelfi, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Vesselina Kasarova, Paul Plishka, Rosalind Plowright and Krassimira Stoyanova and Dolora Zajick.
