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''Simon Boccanegra'' () is an opera with a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play ''Simón Bocanegra'' (1843) by Antonio García Gutiérrez, whose play ''El trovador'' had been the basis for Verdi's 1853 opera, ''Il trovatore''. ''Simon Boccanegra'' was first performed at Teatro La Fenice in Venice on 12 March 1857. Given the complications of the original plot and the generally poor popular response - although the critical one was more encouraging - the opera dropped out of favour after 1866. Finally, 23 years later, Verdi's publisher persuaded the composer to revise the opera, with text changes to be prepared by Arrigo Boito, the librettist who aspired to work with the aging composer on a project which eventually became a new opera, ''Otello'', but to which Verdi had not totally committed at that time. The revised version of ''Simon Boccanegra'', with the now-famous Council Chamber scene, was first performed at La Scala in Milan on 24 March 1881. It is this version which is the one frequently performed today. ==Composition history: the 1857 version== Musicologist and author, Julian Budden points to three projects which the composer had in mind when, at the beginning of 1855, he turned down an invitation from La Fenice to write a new opera for them for the following year. He responded: "the chief obstacle is my unshakable determination not to bind myself anymore to a definite period for either the composition or the production".〔Verdi to Tornielli (from La Fenice), 16 February 1855, in Budden, p. 245〕 While that approach did not turn out to be practicable at that time, it was an ultimate goal and, in aiming to achieve it, his partner of the previous four years, Giuseppina Strepponi greatly encouraged it when she wrote to him at the time of his frustrations two years earlier when working in Paris on ''Les vêpres siciliennes. The only project for which there was forward motion was towards accomplishing his long-planned ''Re Lear'', an opera to be based on ''King Lear'', for which his new librettist (following Salvadore Cammarano's death) was Antonio Somma. But a year later, when overseeing a revival of ''La traviata'' at La Fenice, he agreed to a new opera for that house for the 1856/7 season,〔Osborne, C., p. 295〕 and he proposed the Gutiérrez play, which Budden presumes he had read in translation. Budden also presumes that the translation had been done by Strepponi,〔Budden 1984, Vol. 2, pp. 245–248〕 because she had been the translator of Gutiérrez' other play which had become ''Il trovatore''. The somewhat convoluted plot of ''Simon Boccanegra'' is hard to follow, as Budden notes: "All the characters define themselves against an ingeniously shifting pattern of intrigue such as can be highly effective in a play but well-nigh impossible to follow in an opera".〔 Verdi had gone so far as to actually write out the scenario in prose, which he then submitted to Piave in August; all that he expected from his librettist was that it would be turned into poetry, so Verdi balked somewhat when the censors demanded a complete poetic version: "what does it matter for the moment it's in prose or verse?"〔Verdi to Piave, 3 September 1856, in Budden. p. 247〕 He pushed harder, stating that "I plan to compose music for a prose libretto! What do you think of that?"〔Verdi to Piave, 3 September 1856, in Phillips-Matz, p. 352〕 In the end, there was a poetic version and all was well: it was accepted by the opera house and the censors. Beginning in July and throughout most of the period of the preparation of the libretto, the composer and Strepponi had been in Paris taking care of securing various performance and publication rights, including working on a translated version of ''Il trovatore'', the opera which became ''Le trouvère''. Piave was informed that Verdi's stay would need to be lengthened and everything would be handled between them and the Venetian authorities by mail. However, Verdi's dissatisfaction with some of the librettist's work led him to find a local collaborator to help revise some of the sections. Accordingly, he called upon an Italian exile in Paris, the politician, former professor of law, poet and writer Giuseppe Montanelli,〔Osborne, C., p. 296〕 to do this. Piave learned nothing of the revisions until he received a note from Verdi: "Here is the libretto, shortened and altered more or less as it must be. You can put your name to or it, just as you please". However, he also learned nothing of the anonymous collaborator either.〔Verdi to Piave, date unknown, in Budden, p. 249〕 After the premiere of ''Le trouvère'' on 12 January 1857, Verdi and Strepponi left Paris to return to Italy, then both went to Venice for the March premiere. However, the relationship was soon restored and Piave came to Sant'Agata in April to work on some revisions, but it was the libretto which came in for the heaviest criticism: "It was generally condemned as one of the most unintelligible to have reached the stage" notes Kimball and its general dark and gloomy feel was to affect its fortunes for many years.〔Kimbell 2001, in Holden, p 997〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Simon Boccanegra」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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