Simon Boccanegra, Deutsche Oper Berlin review — politics and poisoning in Verdi’s dark thriller

In a jarring moment, Simon Boccanegra’s flag-draped coffin is carried on to the stage moments before the dying old man has stumbled off it. Droll humour or sloppiness? With Vasily Barkhatov’s new production for Berlin’s Deutsche Oper, it’s hard to tell the difference.

Heaven knows, Berlin could use a decent new Simon Boccanegra. Verdi’s dark thriller was last aired inadequately in a static costume drama at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in 2009, purely a vehicle for Plácido Domingo’s first crack at the baritone role. A new production had every imaginable chance of being better. It was not.

Barkhatov tells Verdi’s medieval tale of politics and poisoning as a modern story — which it is: politics and poisoning remain en vogue. So far, so good. The problem is not Olga Shaishmelashvili’s state-gala costumes, nor even Zinovy Margolin’s endlessly revolving, monumental set. The problem is that Barkhatov merely moves his figures around the stage without actually directing them. The result is aimless and lacklustre, with an awful lot of standing around and some occasional random sitting.

Between acts, Barkhatov projects a jumble of fake Italian media headlines (video: Martin Eidenberger) while an irritating voiceover relates parts of the story, as if nobody has read the synopsis.

A strong conductor might have saved the day, but Jader Bignamini does little more than mark the beat. This is a score that should be shooting off sparks of repressed tension from the word go, not swimming in a basin of ambient lyricism. Where it should be driven, it is flaccid; where it should crackle and scream, it remains insipid.

The cast is solid but never sensational. In the title role, George Petean has heft and stamina; Liang Li’s Fiesco lends an agreeable note of latent violence. But Attilio Glaser is reedy and ineffectual as Adorno, and even Maria Motolygina’s pure yet creamily wide and open vocal range in the role of Amelia cannot quite rescue the evening from its own mundanity.

With its funding and resources, the Deutsche Oper ought to offer excellence. How many things in this house must be dysfunctional for the outcome to fall so far from the mark? It is maddening, but also profoundly sad.

★★☆☆☆

To February 25, deutscheoperberlin.de