Set in 14th-century Genoa, Simon Boccanegra is a gripping story of political intrigue and personal tragedy.

With music full of dark-hued grandeur and excitement, Opera North’s first ever performances of Simon Boccanegra follow Opera North’s acclaimed concert stagings of large-scale Italian classics such as Turandot and Aida. It promises to be an unmissable event.

At its core is a decades-long feud between political rivals: Simon Boccanegra, former pirate and man of the people, and Jacopo Fiesco, a leading member of the nobility. But these enemies are bound together by the strongest of family ties: one is the father and the other the grandfather of the same woman, Amelia.

Premiered in 1857, Verdi revised the opera in 1881 with the librettist Arrigo Boito, with whom he later collaborated on his final masterpieces, Otello and Falstaff. Together they crafted a Shakespearean drama of love, loss and reconciliation which, in its celebrated Council Chamber scene, contains Verdi’s most impassioned plea for peace and unity.