Plácido Domingo's Simon Boccanegra was broadcast from the ROH Covent Garden earlier this year in a rather dated minimalistic production. I think this production from the Met precedes the ROH version. It is much more lavishly staged although it also looks like a revival of an old production. Director Peter McClintock makes the plot very clear. This is not necessarily a good thing since Boccanegra has Verdi's silliest plot, with the possible exception of Louisa Miller.
Domingo plays Boccanegra in his own sweet way. He is no baritone but the Domingo voice plus his dramatic ability carry the part effectively. The only quibble I have here is that the final act baritone-bass duet between Boccanegra and the Fiesco of James Morris lacks a bit of oomph.
Other roles are not so successful tenor Marcello Giordani, apparently a darling of the Met audiences, sounds strangulated as Adorno. Adrianne Pieczonka is a rather matronly Amelia and would probably make a better Brunhilde.
Boccanegra has a difficult performance history. Verdi called in Arrigo Boito to revise the script and to add the council chamber scene at the end of Act I. This is a powerful scene musically and dramatically but, if anything, it adds to the silliness of the plot. Boccanegra has just found his daughter Amelia who has been missing for 25 years. Instead of giving everyone the good news they keep quiet about it. This leads Adorno, Amelia's lover to suspect that Boccanegra is his rival in love. Thus the scene is set for Adorno to try to kill Boccanegra in Act II.
The real villain Paolo, sung by baritone Stephen Gaertner actually poisons Boccanegra at the start of Act II. In an unintentionally humorous scene he sings "Now I prepare a slow and agonising death for you" as he pours enough white powder to kill a horse into Boccanegra's water jug. Boccanegra does, in fact, have a slow and agonising death throughout the rest of Act II and the whole of Act III. These operatic poisons are something else.