Charlottenburg to Genoa

A well-cast evening of Wagner will always fill the house – as witness the Staatsoper’s recent Tannhäuser – but it takes a living legend to bring that house to its feet. So when Plácido Domingo appeared from behind the curtain after a dramatically satisfying and frequently triumphant performance of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, it was only a matter of seconds before the audience was standing; and, while Mr Domingo had undoubtedly been the star of the evening, an arresting performance from tenor Fabio Sartori and a probing, pensive account of the score from Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle made for an evening that sat comfortably among the other great evenings at this year’s Festtage. Much has been made of Plácido Domingo’s late-career switch from tenor to baritone, with many critics hastening to point out that he is not as accomplished…