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Rating: 
Summary: Abbado and Mattila can't save this production
Review: I have to respectfully disagree with the previous reviewer. I agree that Abbado gives the score of Boccanegra a bit of oomph, something it needs for it to 'sell.' But the principals, excepting Karita Mattila, and the production are bush-league. At times I thought I was watching silent moving acting, or members of the football team acting the annual school play. And the singing is merely serviceable. That includes all the male principals. When Mattila as Amelia appears, though, the stage lights up. That, unfortunately, is not enough to save the whole enterprise. Now, if we could just get Mattila on DVD as Salome!
Rating:
Summary: "The center does not hold"
Review: Kariti Mattila is indeed stunning as Amelia Grimaldi. La Scola's bumbling, eager, and erratic Gabriel is thoroughly appropriate for the operatic character (and for the historical one as well). Jacopo Fiesco and Paolo Albiani are both well-played. But Paolo, a mere henchman, dwarfs Carlo Guelfi's Simon. Simon Boccanegra, in the opera as in history, was a forceful and decisive leader. Guelfi's failing voice and hesitant acting reduce the central character to a bewildered and tired old man. The costumes are dull and historically inaccurate.
Rating: 
Summary: Mattila the Magician
Review: This is a stunning Boccanegra DVD. Karita Mattila's magical performance as Amelia/Maria turns this once neglected Verdi part into a starring vehicle. Be it for her gorgeously lavish sound (She must have the most beautiful soprano voice in the world) or her phenomenal acting that Gramophone magazine describes as Garbo -like. Seriously, I find Mattila fresher, more vivid and real (by today's standards) than Garbo who may well have been a genius in expressing quiet depressive anxiety in close-ups. Special mention goes to cinematography and the finest picture and sound quality I have yet seen & heard on DVD.A MUST have!
Rating:
Summary: AH VERDI
Review: This performance is what opera is about. It just does not get any better than this when it comes to opera--sublime Verdi, fabulous production, the best (in my opinion)Verdi conductor in the whole world, extraordinary cast of singers. This is opera at its glorious best!
If you want to see and hear how exciting opera can be, buy this disc!
Rating:
Summary: AH VERDI
Review: This performance is what opera is about. It just does not get any better than this when it comes to opera--sublime Verdi, fabulous production, the best (in my opinion)Verdi conductor in the whole world, extraordinary cast of singers. This is opera at its glorious best!
If you want to see and hear how exciting opera can be, buy this disc!
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