Simon Boccanegra

High school (ages 12+)
Art & Creativity

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/simon-boccanegra

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the artistic medium?Opera
2. What is the composer?Giuseppe Verdi
3. What is Simon Boccanegra about?It is an opera by Giuseppe Verdi about a former pirate who becomes the Doge of Genoa and must make difficult choices about power and family.
4. Why did the opera change after 20 years?The first version was hard to follow and people didn’t enjoy it, so Verdi worked with Arrigo Boito to rewrite it, adding a new scene and making the story clearer.

Libretto: The text or script of an opera, containing the words to be sung.
Doge: The elected head of state in the historical republics of Venice and Genoa.
Leitmotif: A recurring musical theme associated with a particular person, place, or idea in an opera.
Verismo: A late 19th-century Italian opera style characterized by realistic, often gritty, portrayals of everyday life.