Simon Boccanegra

Opera in three acts with prologue, in two parts, in Italian, with Hungarian and English surtitles

“Such intimate and delicately crafted music is not only impossible to appraise, one cannot even begin to comprehend it,” is how one contemporary critic described Giuseppe Verdi's musical drama. With Simon Boccanegra, a remarkably intricate and monumental musical drama about family and politics, Giuseppe Verdi whisks the audience back to 14th-century Geneva. The opera is constructed from motifs that Verdi had developed even earlier. It includes the themes of the lost child, generational conflict, friendship and betrayal. In keeping with the Italian opera tradition from Rossini to Puccini, the composer showed human passions and conflicts in a political environment. The story of the Genovan doge, a work condemning ill-fated political battles and urging amity within the Italian nation has been conquering the world's opera stages since 1881.