Last night's opening was a warm-up act, a rehearsal for the audience before the Big One, the show that we're all waiting for, the world premiere of the Bonesetter's Daughter, next Saturday. Among the other season kick-off festivities, you can attend the free Opera in the Park concert tomorrow at 1:30pm. You know the shtick: bring sunscreen, cold cuts and chardonnay, and enjoy some darn fine singing on the lawn.

Yet, the performance still caught our attention, thanks to two amazing Slavic singers. Verdi's Simon Boccanegra is a story of curses, kidnappings and misplaced children. It mostly hinges on the love of Simon and Amelia, which some characters interpret as they're doing unspeakable things to each other in the cover of the night, while in truth it's as pure as spring: she's his secret daughter. Confused characters get angry, tragedy ensues.

Simon (Dmitri Hvorostovsky) comes onstage in the prologue, set 25 years before the first act, wearing a Rambo headband, and looking as comfortable acting as Sly Stallone. He's a buccaneer who gets elected Doge of Genoa. Fast forward to Act I, and with the gravitas of governing, he found his acting chops. He's definitely more comfortable doing stately rather than agitated. He is not vocally overpowering, but always seems in control of his voice. His exclamation of joy when realizing he found his long lost daughter brought tears, so perfectly was it intonated. And he perfectly paced his long (spoiler!) agony, sending everyone home sniffing in their handkerchiefs.

Picture of Barbara Frittolli and Dmitri Hvorostovsky above, Vitalij Kowaljow below, courtesy of SF Opera/Terrence McCarthy

Barbara Frittolli was making a long-awaited SF Opera debut as Amelia, and proved competent, if not mind blowing. She's the lone woman voice in the performance, so it should be easy for her to stand out. She sounded thin in the lower register, and had a sometime shaky pitch in the top high Bs. Most of her role stays in between, well into her comfort zone, and she delivered it with grace. She did look a bit self-conscious with respect to her marks on the stage, and will most likely get more comfortable with a few performances under her belt.

The guy who absolutely stole the show: Vitalij Kowaljow, the grand-dad of Amelia and enemy of Simon. His bass voice as the depth of an abyss, and he carried around his dignified distress convincingly. We could not help but focus on him in all the scenes where he shared the stage.

Other notables: tenor Marcus Haddock (last seen here) as Gabriele, the love interest, his voice bright and fluid, but why did they have to outfit him with the dress of a librarian? And Patrick Carfizzi, as the mean traitor, single dimensionally evil.

The set and the stage production are rather sparse, leaving room for too much static park and bark. Since most of the music is grave and majestuous, it makes for a slowly paced evening, and a bit more life from the stage direction would not hurt.

Donald Runnicles conducted his last Opening Night, which makes us sad. Even though Verdi is not his forte, and this performance sometimes languished a bit, we'll miss having him conducting this occasion.

Simon Boccanegra, 6 more performances:
Tue Sep 9, 7:30 pm, Fri Sep 12, 8 pm, Wed Sep 17, 7:30 pm, Sun Sep 21, 2 pm, Wed Sep 24, 7:30 pm, Sat Sep 27, 8 pm.