Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Flung flowers and a standing ovation greeted Placido Domingo in his first appearance as a baritone at the Berlin Staatsoper.

Draped in the robes of Simon Boccanegra, he found vocal happiness in Verdi’s somber opera about a 14th century Genoese doge with a complicated life story, a dead girlfriend, a missing daughter and many enemies.

Conductor Daniel Barenboim and diva Anja Harteros also won enthusiastic applause, while stage director Federico Tiezzi was roundly, loudly booed.

Such star-studded events are rare in the German capital, where the operatic focus is often more on startling stage direction than on big-name singers.

Saturday’s premiere was all about Domingo, 68. The audience was packed with excited fans. Applause broke out the moment the Spanish singer set foot on stage, and continued for a good quarter-hour after the final curtain fell.

Domingo, the Sean Connery of the operatic stage, has aged without losing his sex appeal, even if he no longer has the high notes for the tenor roles that brought him fame.

“Simon Boccanegra” offers no opportunity for swaggering. Simon is a melancholy man whose only relationship is with his long-lost daughter Maria, who turns up in the arms of an enemy. Set in perilous times, by a politically involved composer, the opera is full of conspiracies and confusing shifts of power; women take a back seat.

Alpha Male

Even hindered by Tiezzi’s catastrophically static staging (more museum exhibit than music theater), Domingo exuded alpha- animal charisma throughout. This is no tectonic shift in voice type or technical miracle. Domingo simply sang as he always does, with crackling presence, musical intelligence, fastidious attention to detail, and bold imagination. The low notes are not always the loudest, but the high notes are effortless, and everything in between is utterly compelling.

Harteros sang with well-rounded lyricism as the lost-and- found daughter Maria, but Fabio Sartori floundered in his upper reaches and often missed the beat as her lover Adorno. Bass Kwangchul Youn provided a formidable counterfoil for Domingo as a velvet-voiced enemy Fiesco.

Barenboim opted for knuckle-whitening velocity and crashing climaxes in the pit; “Boccanegra” could not possibly be louder.

This co-production with Milan’s La Scala is the product of Barenboim’s position as musical head of both houses, and marks an unholy union of disparate theatrical tastes.

First-night Berlin viewers howled their displeasure at unknown Italian director Tiezzi’s absurdly decorative staging. Singers weighed down by proto-Renaissance robes, brought to mind “Batman” and “Shrek.” Domingo sang his final death scene in a floor-length gold frock with matching tea-cosy hat, while his daughter stood about in white lace (costumes: Giovanna Buzzi). Perhaps the more conservative and differently fashionable Milanese will love the show.

“Simon Boccanegra” runs five more nights at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, returns in March, and moves on to Milan next spring. Domingo sings the role in further productions at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Zurich and Madrid. Not that he is abandoning his tenor career. His schedule includes Handel’s “Tamerlano” and Wagner’s “Die Walkure.”

For more information, go to http://www.staatsoper-berlin.de

(Shirley Apthorp is a critic for Bloomberg News. Opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the writer on the story: Shirley Apthorp at sarabande100@aol.com.

Last Updated: October 25, 2009 21:24 EDT