I am puzzled by Simon Boccanegra's negative reputation in opera circles. True, its storyline is a little soap-opera-ish, but then so is that of many others operas. True, the story does not hang together unless one knows the reasons for the fighting between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, which plays a role in this dramatic tale. True, Verdi had some problems with it and revisited it almost a quarter of a century after its first production in 1857, rewriting a whole section for its staging in 1881. But these are not sufficient reasons to stay away from this opera. Then we are told it has too dark a score and too dark a tale for many opera-goers. Surely, there are darker tales than this one.

Let it suffice that the COC, by using the excellent set and costumes from the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the original stage direction, has given its patrons every reason to be happy. The costumes by Deirdre Clancy place the action in the period of Verdi's own time when he first conceived the opera rather than in its historical time of the 14^th century. The plebeians wear earthy colors ranging from terracotta to red, while the nobles are in various shades of blue. Boccanegra, once he appears in the role of the doge rather than the corsair, has robes of a stronger red to remind us of his plebeian origins.

The costume color scheme works well with the set by John Gunter, who created an image of the Port of Genoa in which the side panels are tilted to create what might be called a skewed vanishing point perspective of a painting. On the edge of the proscenium he has placed parts of a red frame to put the action deeply within this painting. Only its stage left panel now and then lifts slightly to give the audience a view of the Ligurian Sea, so important to the city's seafaring history. The lighting, here created by Nigel Levings (COC's Don Carlos & Billy Budd), brings out the colors and at the same time evokes the often ominous mood of this 'painting'.

Verdi sets the stage for this opera by employing a prologue rather than an overture or prelude to prepare the audience for the unfolding events. Set 25 years before the actual events of the opera, it serves as a vehicle to show the scheming goldsmith, Paolo, offer riches to the plebeian party leader Pietro if he supports him in making the commoner and corsair, Simon Boccanegra, the new doge of Genoa. Boccanegra, in the meantime arrives in the city in search of his lover, Maria, daughter of the patrician Jacopo Fiesco. She had borne him a daughter. Fate had it that the child vanished and Maria died while imprisoned in her father's palace. Boccanegra accepts Paolo's offer to become doge in the hope that Fiesco will allow him to marry Maria. He is quite unaware of Paolo's playing on the Genoese people's superstitions, his manipulation of the corsiar's love for Fiesco's daughter, and also his withholding of the knowledge of her death. Earlier, an anguished Fiesco swears vengeance against Boccanegra, and when the two men meet he refuses to reconcile with his daughter's lover, stating he will only forgive him when he presents him with his lost granddaughter. After a horrified Boccanegra discovers Maria's body in the now empty palace, he is swept up by the jubilant crowd hailing him the new Doge.

Director Ian Judge creates a marvelous time laps from that moment to 25 years later. The crowd, encircling the new Doge, Boccanegra, slowly unwinds, moving off the stage one by one. This avoids having to make any drastic scene changes or bringing down a curtain. Judge, throughout the three acts that follow, creates well choreographed crowd scenes and flowing scene changes that allow the action to unfold smoothly.

While the story is a political drama based on historic events, it is foremost the relationship between a father, Boccanegra, and his newly found daughter he had named Maria, known now as Amelia Grimaldi. This relationship is the emotional center piece of the story, while all else unfolds separately around it. This includes Amelia's love for the patrician Gabriele Adorno, a failed kidnaping plot that leads to Paolo's downfall, and the poisoning of Boccanegra, who dies, but not before he reconciles with Fiesco and declares Gabriele the new Doge of Genoa.

The underlying motif is that power corrupts, that greed leads to excess and doom, that love can overcome obstacles, and that a plea for unity is more often ignored than heeded. These are all subjects that are timeless and find echoes in today's world without having to be updated, although Judge and his artistic team chose Verdi's own world.

Now to the musical stars of this wonderful production. Conductor Marco Guidarini and the COC Orchestra work well together, and with the singers, giving Verdi's darkly-colored score the rich tone it requires. Boccanegra is sung by Italian baritone Paolo Gavanelli. He lives up to the role, to me one of the most challenging a baritone has to face. It requires not only a strongly modulated voice, but an ability to act. Gavanelli does so superbly.

Canadian Phillip Ens shines as Fiesco, and bass Alain Coulombe as Pietro shows why he often appears with the COC. American baritone Daniel Sutin is perfectly cast as the schemer Paolo, both vocally and as an actor. Then there is Russian tenor Mikhail Agafonov, who last appeared here as Count Pierre Bezukhov in War and Peace. He exhibits a lusty sound that suits the role of Gabriele Adorno well, especially during his wooing of Amelia, sung here by American soprano Tamara Wilson. Although her nicely colored voice sometimes has difficulty standing up to the stronger male voices, she has no difficulty portraying a touching love for her newly-found father, or her fierce defense of Gabriele, for whom she seeks clemency from her father.