Mon, May 4, 2026
For eighty years now, the orchestra has worked regularly with Dutch National Opera (formerly The Netherlands Opera), and since 1986, we’ve even done something together almost every year. In June, we’ll play Verdi’s opera Simon Boccanegra, in a new production directed by Jetske Mijnssen, conducted by Verdi expert Fabio Luisi.
The interviews in this article appeared in Preludium, the music magazine of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Concertgebouw.
Simon Boccanegra seethes with political intrigue, love and betrayal. Giuseppe Verdi paints a portrait of a father and politician who longs in vain for peace and liberty. Director Jetske Mijnssen has already proven her amazing ability to penetrate into the soul of her characters. She knows exactly how to handle the complex emotional worlds of both Simon Boccanegra and his long-lost daughter Amelia.
This will be the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s first time performing this dramatic opera. Other Verdi operas we’ve played in the Dutch National Opera & Ballet (formerly Muziektheater) since 1986 are Falstaff (in 1994 and 2014), Otello (1996), Aïda (2000) and Don Carlo (2004).
For Fabio Luisi, conducting Simon Boccanegra is a piece of cake. To begin with, the opera is set in Luisi’s native Genoa. Interviewed for the June issue of Preludium, he says, ‘I’ve been involved with Verdi my whole life.’ Each time Simon Boccanegra has come his way, his ideas about the music, the story and the tempi evolve even more. ‘I used to think that Verdi had to sound wild, or impassioned. But you can approach passion in lots of different ways. […] I’ve discovered the beauty of slowness, of allowing phrases to breathe. And there are a lot of things like that, things that change as you get older.’
The beauty of opera is that the music itself tells the story. As a composer, Verdi had theatre in his blood, and Luisi understands and feels this appreciation perfectly. ‘This music is theatre; what I’m doing is just helping it make more of a dramatic impact, but there’s drama in every note. Just like the operas of Mozart and Richard Strauss; they were never thinking only about the music, but also about the action on stage, and how that had to be illustrated and reinforced by the music.’
To make this music, the Concertgebouw Orchestra will be joined by an indisputably all-star cast. World-class Verdi baritone George Petean is returning to Amsterdam to sing the title role. Boccanegra’s daughter Amelia Grimaldi will be sung by the celebrated soprano Federica Lombardi. In the role of her lover Gabriele Adorno is tenor Joshua Guerrero, famous for his radiant sound. The bass Georg Zeppenfeld will bring his warm timbre to the role of Boccanegra’s enemy Jacopo Fiesco. And let’s absolutely not forget the Chorus of Dutch National Opera, fresh from singing with the Netherlands Radio Choir in our performances of Prokofiev’s cantata Alexander Nevsky!