Arrigo Boito is better known as Verdi’s ibrettist on several well known operas but he did write a couple of his own.  Mefistofele is probably the better known of the two but it feels like the one he put pretty much heart and soul into is Nerone.  Now it’s a matter of some controversy whether he finished the opera or not.  Four acts were completed and the composer is on record, in 1911, as describing the opera as “finished” but there’s a prose summary of a possible fifth act which is generally regarded as so unstageable that the composer couldn’t possibly have made opera out of it.  In any event the version staged at Cagliari in 2024 and recorded for video is the four act version.

Boito was considered something of a classical scholar, rather theoretical and somewhat prolix.  Among the reasons his collaborations with Verdi work so well is that the latter insisted on loads of cuts and also because Verdi had a very good sense of what would work on stage and what wouldn’t.  Left to his own devices Boito came up with four loosely linked scenes packed with obscure classical allusions and a fair amount of hokum.  Nerone has been called a sort of operatic equivalent of James Joyce’s Ulysses and i can see why.

The plot, such as it is, has three main elements.  There’s Nero; who has murdered his mother and is wandering around with her ashes pursued (maybe) by the Furies.  There are a bunch of Christians led by one Fanuèl who is in love with Rubria who has some sort of unspecified sin on her conscience and there’s Simon Magus who is a charlatan who hates the Christians.  There’s also Asteria, who has the hots for Nero, plus some very blood thirsty Romans.

The opening scene takes place at some sort of burial place outside Rome where all sorts of largely unconnected things happen hut the one clear bit is that Fanuèl and Simon are enemies.  There’s a lot of chanting of lists of obscure names.  Act 2 sees Simon trying to persuade Nero that he is a real magician by flying and by summoning a goddess (who is actually Asteria).  Nero is sufficiently guilt ridden by the murder of his mother and the fact that he raped Rubria on the altar of Vesta to almost fall for this.  But he wises up and orders that Simon be executed at the next games along with any available Christians and that Asteria be thrown in the snake pit.

Act 3 starts with a classical Christian baptism scene that goes on a bit before Asteria, having escaped from the snake pit, bursts in and warns the Christians that Simon is on his way to arrest them.  Fanuèl refuses to escape and after more pretty nonsensical references to really obscure stuff is arrested.

Act 4 takes us the Colosseum where we learn that Simon’s supporters intend to set the city on fire to cover his escape.  All sorts of antics with horses/chariots, golden bulls, gladiator football and what not goes on until Nero appears and describes in gruesome detail and with considerable relish how he’s going to off the Christian women.  It involves tying them to the backsides of bulls that have been maddened by archers which may explain the frequent references to Dirce.  Rubria appears to be raped by a golden bull.  The crowd is ecstatic.  Nero is warned that the city is on fire but ignores it because he will miraculously resurrect it.

In the final scene we are in some sort of funerary complex where Fanuèl finds the body of Simon and a not quite dead yet Rubria.  A totally OTT Asteria appears to warn Fanuèl that the place is on fire but he refuses to go and we get what seems like it’s going to be the classic operatic ending of the soprano expiring in the arms of her lover but no.  What we get is another BDSM inflected rant from Asteria and Nero appearing to cut the throat of the golden boy with a lyre who has been following him around all opera.  Meanwhile Rome is in flames.

Director Fabio Ceresa goes for the over the top approach full on.  His production is colourful and packed with dancers and extras including a weird set of Praetorians who look like a cross between a motorbike gang and the Royal Flying Corps led by Centurion Biggles.  Simon’s hocus pocus is played just seriously enough to be funny and from time to time a much darker element emerges but it can’t do the impossible.  The libretto is non-linear, inconsistent and stuffed with long lists of obscure names of people who, maybe, feature somewhere in the remoter corners of classical myth and legend.  It’s still a bit of a mess.

The music is a bit odd too.  It must have been written in the first decade of the 20th century but one would hardly know it.  It sounds a bit like not very inspired and rather overblown late Verdi with some odd Wagnerian touches; including a mega-sized orchestra.  The music for Rome burning sounds almost like it was lifted intact from Das Rheingold for instance.  There’s not a hint of anything that was happening in Italy let alone the other side of the Alps in that tumultuous decade.

The cast is not bad.  Deniz Uzun sings and acts rather well as Rubria.  Franco Vagallo is a pleasingly campy Simon.  Roberto Frontali is solid in the rather ungrateful role of Fanuèl.  It’s no fun being the good guy in an opera with OTT baddies.  There’s some serious tenoring from the imposing Mikheil Sheshaberidze as Nero.  Valentina Boi is a bit overwrought as Asteria but I guess when one is playing a character who has been thrown in a snake pit that’s understandable.  The chorus is very lively and the dancers are excellent.  I don’t really know what the conductor is supposed to do in this one but Francesco Cilluffo doesn’t let things descend into chaos (musically at least) and gets a big, lush sound from the orchestra.

Matteo Richetti directs for video and it’s pretty good given it’s very busy and often quite dark.  Picture and sound (PCM stereo and DTS-HD) are both excellent on Blu-ray.  The booklet has a useful interview with the conductor who admires the piece more than I do.  Subtitle options are Italian, English, French, German, Korean and Japanese.

I think this is largely of curiosity value.

Catalogue information: Dynamic Blu-ray DYN 58047