Raina Kabaivanska as Amelia Grimaldi

Above: soprano Raina Kabaivanska

Teatro All Scala gave a two-week season at The Kennedy Center in Washington DC in September 1976, a highlight of the Center’s Bicentennial Celebration. The performances marked La Scala’s first appearance in the United States with an exclusive engagement at the Opera House. The repertory: Verdi’s Macbeth, starring mezzo-soprano Shirley Verrett, La Bohème, La Cenerentola, and Simon Boccanegra.

By chance, I happened to catch a broadcast of the Boccanegra and recorded a bit of it, despite some radio interference from a late summer storm. Raina Kabaivanska sang Amelia, Piero Cappuccilli was Simon Boccanegra, and Claudio Abbado conducted.

Here is the beautiful ‘recognition’ duet, where Simon is re-united with his long-lost daughter:

BOCCANEGRA duet – Kabaivanska & Cappuccilli – Scala at Washington DC – 1976