The drama Simon Boccanegra by Antonio Garcia Gutiérrez (1812-1884) is as convoluted a plot as Gutiérrez' earlier work, El Trovador, upon which Verdi based his opera Il trovatore. The original play, which concerned the 14th century doge of the city-state of Genoa, was written while Gutiérrez was the Spanish consul in Genoa and as a result of being introduced to the local history of this venerable Italian seaport. The title character is actually a combination of the two historical Boccanegra brothers, Egidio, who had the reputation of a buccaneer and Simon, who was actual doge of Genoa and who was so popular with the people that he was elected twice, once in 1339 and later in 1356. Simon was a fascinating figure for someone like Verdi who loved stories of political intrigue. The historical Simon was a plebeian, a man of the people who constantly struggled to keep plebeian and patrician factions from destroying the city by their constant fighting. He was eventually poisoned at a dinner by one of his enemies and he died, painfully, before all the gathered guests.
This political history was certainly enough to stimulate the dramatic imagination of Verdi. But it was the personal and familial angle that Gutiérrez gave to Simon in the play that probably most attracted Verdi to the story as something perfect for operatic treatment. In the play, Simon has fathered a child out of wedlock with the daughter of one of his enemies. The child is kidnapped, and the mother dies almost at the exact moment he is elected doge. Many years later he is reunited with his daughter through sheer coincidence. But he realizes to his horror that she is betrothed to a member of the enemy camp and has been raised unknowingly by her grandfather, the very man who plots Simon's demise.
What was the cause of Verdi's attraction to this strange plot? Well certainly not the complexities of the story. It was the human relationships involved here, especially the unique bond which exists between father and daughter, something that Verdi might have enjoyed in the 1850s if it hadn't been for the tragic deaths of his wife and two children that had occurred many years before (cf. the article, "Verdi and Simon Boccanegra").
Because Verdi was in Paris in 1856 during much of the drafting of the libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, some of the work on the libretto was done by Giovanni Montanelli, an Italian expatriate poet living in France. Verdi, as usual, micro-managed the production of the libretto. In fact, according to the New Grove Dictionary of Opera, he gave Piave a precisely detailed prose sketch of the story as he wished it to unfold and insisted that this sketch be used in order for the opera to pass the censors. Piave's completed work is as brilliant as anything he created for the composer, but it must be remembered that Verdi was quite exacting in what he wanted from a librettist: above all, brevity, as well as well-chosen images that could easily allow the music to express character and emotion.
Arrigo Boïto (1842-1918) wrote additional verses for Simon as part of the 1881 revision, most importantly the council chamber scene (Act I, scene ii) which is entirely new. Verdi used this work as a testing ground for the younger librettist, for possible work in the future. We now know, of course, that Boïto's future with Verdi would result in two of the greatest works of the Italian lyric stage: Falstaff and Otello.