The Romanian National Opera in Cluj-Napoca opened its new season with the premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's Simon Boccanegra.

On Saturday, 4th of October 2025, the Romanian National Opera in Cluj-Napoca opened the 2025-2026 season with the premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Simon Boccanegra. At the general director of the institution's invitation, I attended this first performance. The following evening, the audience had the opportunity to watch another performance of this opera with a different cast in the leading roles.

The opera Simon Boccanegra is being played for the first time on the stage of this institution and it's rarely presented in Romania as a whole - it was part of the repertoire of the Bucharest Opera and of the Craiova Opera, and it was performed as a concert in Timişoara. It consists of a prologue and three acts based on an original libretto by Francesco Maria Piave with additions by Giuseppe Montanelli, revised after the failure of its premiere in Venice in 1857. The revision is both musical and in terms of the libretto by which Arrigo Boito has contributed to. The updated version had a great success at La Scala in 1881. The opera is based on a play with the same name signed by Antonio Garcia Guttiérrez. Simon Boccanegra was a real person, namely the first doge of the Republic of Genoa, who was removed from office but later reinstated, and ended his life by being poisoned by his enemies. During his time in office, Boccanegra pushed for a non-aggression policy with Genoa's main competitor in the merchant navy, Venice, and fostered ties of cooperation with the rivalling city for a common defence strategy against the Ottoman Empire.

The renowned Italian bass singer, Roberto Scandiuzzi made his debut in this production, which it also bears his signature.A role that facilitated his debut in 1991 at Convent Garden, the Italian artist has performed the character of Fiesco for over 500 times, and therefore he is very familiar with the score. The result is a show that respects the score and libretto, staged in a classical style, set in the historical era in which it is being narrated, and therefore well-made. I couldn't find any spark of uniqueness or original directorial ideas, but I could appreciate that it did not stray from the source, i.e., the score, as it is unfortunately all too often the case these days. The people Cluj-Napoca love good performances, which in turn it rejects challenges and experiments that distort the musical line or create images that are completely at odds with the score and the libretto. Therefore, this was a beautiful performance that made the voices to shine in the spotlight and put all of the attention on the performers. I couldn't help but notice the character development, the excellent collaboration that Scandiuzzi instilled between the soloists, who in turn were credible in their acting and understood their roles very well. From an aesthetic standpoint, Anca Pintilie created distinctive settings and costumes that take us back to a Genoa of the 14th century, by which she managed to illustrate the locations stated in the score- the church wall and the candle which are meant to represent the small square from the prologue, then the arches of a palace's terrace in Act I, as well as a simple council chamber, followed by the Doge's room in Act II, and a room of the palace in the end. The recurring creative element throughout the drama which eventually became its theme is a ship presented in various forms, ultimately becoming a device through which Simon travels to the other world, as if swallowed up by the depths of the sea that the former corsair once ruled. Lorenzo Caproli created lighting design which gave the opera the same atmosphere as of those splendid Renaissance paintings, and which managed to illustrate the moments of day and night mentioned in the score. Luca Attili created images of fascinating realism through video design, such as the sea that could be seen through the arches of the palace's terrace.

Just like in Il Trovatore, Simon Boccanegra has prologue and the plot is quite convoluted as well. However, while in Il Trovatore we can understand the story as it unfolds, it cannot be said the same about Simon Boccanegra. The events from Act I take place 25 years after those from the prologue. Simon is still the doge, but his enemy Fiesco now bears the name Andrea Grimaldi. Also, Simon's missing daughter and Fiesco's niece is now Amelia Grimaldi, Andrea's adopted daughter. A narrator was selected to facilitate a better understanding and clarify the relationship dynamics between the characters. The person in question is Mihai Nițu, whose narrative takes place in front of the pit's mantelpiece during the intermission between the prologue and Act I.

With a single exception, all of the soloists and the ensemble made their debut in this opera from a musical standpoint. As with any debut of this scale, anxiety plays a major a role, as maybe the time allocated for preparation was not enough. However, the moments of uncertainty that arose either from the pit or on stage from the choir and soloists became less frequent as the performance went on, with the most significant ones occurring in the prologue.

I have watched the original cast starring baritone Florin Estefan in the main role, which he has described as a new and nuanced paternal role made by Verdi in the interview. The artist created an upward evolution all the way throughout the performance by creating a character with the necessary amount of. nobility, alternating between the authoritarian but politically savvy character of the doge and an impassioned father, overwhelmed by longing for his daughter. The performer paid lots of attention to carefully balancing together the baritone score and the lyrical phrases.

Georgian bass Sulkhan Jaiani, with an impressive deep bass voice and a sensational low register, made his debut as Fiesco. I believe that "Il lacerato spirito" - Fiesco's aria in the prologue - is the most well-known part of the entire opera, as it is a challenging score for basses for which the audience has high expectations. I would have appreciated a more nuanced, expressive interpretation that would highlight the quality of his voice. I could only notice the artist's obvious passion within the duet with Simon that took place in the last act.

The soprano Paula Iancic made a new debut as Maria Boccanegra / Amelia Grimaldi after her success with Aida in May this year, which also took place in Cluj-Napoca. A graduate of the Cluj Academy of Music, the young artist is slowly conquering highly complex scores. I have known her since she was a student, but I am still amazed by the vocal maturity she has at her age. She has a beautiful voice, with rich tones and a well-mastered singing technique, that allows her to brilliantly perform linear and agile phrases alike. What more could I want? For her particularly sonorous voice, already even across all registers, to create more colours and further enliven the music scores. But an artist needs to perform in front of an audience as often as possible in order for that to happen, as studying in a controlled setting is not enough. I hope that her new status as a soloist at the Bucharest Opera will lead to good things. Teodor Ilincăi made his debut as Gabriele Adorno, who happens to be the Paula's lover in the show, but also her husband in real life. Despite being several years since I saw Tudor in a live performance, I am perfectly up-to-date with his career, with his most recent achievement being in Il Trovatore in Marseille. I am currently impressed by his performance in this new role. He is impetuous, with a lot of energy and a resonating high voice as per the score's demands, but he surprised me this time because of a certain sweetness in his tone and his rendering of the passages - from which heroic moments weren't missing - with refinement, and a mature approach. Although it was only a debut, he was familiar with the score from the time he played the role of The Captain in the production that ran at the Bucharest Opera. Gabriele Adorno was the dream role of Teodor's that came true only after almost two decades of other performances.

The only person who had experience in this opera was baritone Mihai Damian, who is another young graduate of the Cluj Music Academy - he played Paolo a few years back prior to this performance. As a result, he was the most relaxed as he faithfully rendered the character's Machiavellian nature, and the testament of his acting skills was the terrible curse scene at the end of the first act, which it was impeccable. His voice, which seems to be based on a very good technique, already shows a vocal maturity that will soon allow him to take on great baritone roles as we will continue to follow his career. We are looking forward to hearing him in the Operalia competition at the end of this month.

The cast was rounded out by other soloists who had great performances for their debuts: bass Zoltan Molnar as Pietro, tenor Iosia Balteş as The Captain, and soprano Ștefania Barz as The Maid.

The choir prepared by Corneliu Felecan and the institution's orchestra also took part in the performance, as the solo moments of the orchestra were also appreciated. The person in charge was an ideal musician for Italian lyric works, namely the artistic director of the Cluj Opera, the conductor David Crescenzi.