:) <3 I'm so glad that you are enjoying these posts -- I worry a little that all this Opera All The Time is boring to everyone :) (But omg, VERDI!!)
I did understand the kidnapping thing -- it went by awfully fast, though, as you say :) Maybe you can explain Fiesco to me, though -- Because of Wikipedia, I now understand why he was hanging out with the Grimaldis, but I'm still confused as to what he was doing the rest of the time. Wikipedia tells me Paolo imprisoned him in Act II?... why?... Then he also randomly gets out of prison in Act III? I think I may have missed something here in the subtitles.
My understanding of young Amelia was that Simon sent her away as a child because he couldn't raise a baby on a ship, and the woman who was looking after her died (and presumably stopped sending Simon progress reports, which I imagine is how he realized something was wrong), and Amelia/Maria didn't know what to do and wandered around for a while, and finally the Grimaldis were searching around for an orphan who was about the same age as Amelia-who-died, and found Maria as a suitable candidate. But maybe I am missing something here too?
Thomas Hampson is amazing. I really love his voice (which is reminiscent to me of a more oratorio-baroque-focused voice (or a Broadway musical voice :) ), though I know that's not his thing, but it was a useful entry point for me, as sometimes I don't react well to more conventional Verdi voices) but his acting, which is the Best, is also very important to me. He's awfully nice to look at, too, which doesn't hurt at all :) Do you have Spotify? There's a recording of him as Simon on it which I like a lot (I may have been listening to "M'ardon le tempia and resulting duet a Lot today... :) I love the whole duet, but I especially have a lot of feelings about the part of the duet where Fiesco is all "Haha, vengeance!!" while at the same time Simon's like, "Oh yay, finally you'll forgive me!" until Fiesco has to stop and say, "Wait a moment... what?") -- Oh hey, look, youtube has this recording! That being said, I went and listened to some of the Cappuccilli/Freni/Ghiaurov you recommended and WHOA, it is amazing.
I went back and checked, and it was near the end of Act II that he drinks the poison, not the middle, so I was wrong, not an hour (maybe 30-40 minutes?) -- he drinks the poison after Adorno and Amelia have their duet and Simon and Amelia have their duet, before he goes to sleep and Adorno thinks about killing him. ("Perfin l'onda del fonte รจ amara al labbro / Dell'uom che regna...") But I felt like a lot happened in between that and when he actually died -- Adorno tries to kill him, Amelia stops him, he learns Simon's her dad, there's a whole uprising that gets put down?? and the Fiesco scene is pretty long, too... :)
Yeah, Adorno was not the greatest. It didn't bother me so much, since I, uh, tend not to pay as much attention to the tenor love interests in general, but I did get a little weirded out about Simon naming Adorno his successor. (Though Wikipedia tells me that the historical Adorno was deposed, lol.)
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I did understand the kidnapping thing -- it went by awfully fast, though, as you say :) Maybe you can explain Fiesco to me, though -- Because of Wikipedia, I now understand why he was hanging out with the Grimaldis, but I'm still confused as to what he was doing the rest of the time. Wikipedia tells me Paolo imprisoned him in Act II?... why?... Then he also randomly gets out of prison in Act III? I think I may have missed something here in the subtitles.
My understanding of young Amelia was that Simon sent her away as a child because he couldn't raise a baby on a ship, and the woman who was looking after her died (and presumably stopped sending Simon progress reports, which I imagine is how he realized something was wrong), and Amelia/Maria didn't know what to do and wandered around for a while, and finally the Grimaldis were searching around for an orphan who was about the same age as Amelia-who-died, and found Maria as a suitable candidate. But maybe I am missing something here too?
Thomas Hampson is amazing. I really love his voice (which is reminiscent to me of a more oratorio-baroque-focused voice (or a Broadway musical voice :) ), though I know that's not his thing, but it was a useful entry point for me, as sometimes I don't react well to more conventional Verdi voices) but his acting, which is the Best, is also very important to me. He's awfully nice to look at, too, which doesn't hurt at all :) Do you have Spotify? There's a recording of him as Simon on it which I like a lot (I may have been listening to "M'ardon le tempia and resulting duet a Lot today... :) I love the whole duet, but I especially have a lot of feelings about the part of the duet where Fiesco is all "Haha, vengeance!!" while at the same time Simon's like, "Oh yay, finally you'll forgive me!" until Fiesco has to stop and say, "Wait a moment... what?") -- Oh hey, look, youtube has this recording! That being said, I went and listened to some of the Cappuccilli/Freni/Ghiaurov you recommended and WHOA, it is amazing.
I went back and checked, and it was near the end of Act II that he drinks the poison, not the middle, so I was wrong, not an hour (maybe 30-40 minutes?) -- he drinks the poison after Adorno and Amelia have their duet and Simon and Amelia have their duet, before he goes to sleep and Adorno thinks about killing him. ("Perfin l'onda del fonte รจ amara al labbro / Dell'uom che regna...") But I felt like a lot happened in between that and when he actually died -- Adorno tries to kill him, Amelia stops him, he learns Simon's her dad, there's a whole uprising that gets put down?? and the Fiesco scene is pretty long, too... :)
Yeah, Adorno was not the greatest. It didn't bother me so much, since I, uh, tend not to pay as much attention to the tenor love interests in general, but I did get a little weirded out about Simon naming Adorno his successor. (Though Wikipedia tells me that the historical Adorno was deposed, lol.)