DMITRI HVOROSTOVSKY

Dmitri Hvorostovsky stars in Verdi's darkest opera

San Jose Mercury News Mon, 08 Sep 2008 4:00 PM PDTSan Francisco Opera has opened its season with "Simon Boccanegra," whose impossibly layered plot spans 30 years of mistaken identities, mayhem, kidnappings, betrayals and poisonings. On top of that, none of the arias count among the composer's greatest hits. So why bother? Because the overall score can cast a spell to rival any of Verdi's greatest works, and the staging, unveiled here in 2001