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Whatever his motivation, Verdi was determined to make “Simon Boccanegra” a success, and he and the Italian librettist Arrigo Boito reworked it extensively after its premiere in Venice in 1857.

Within days, Arrigo Boito started sketching a libretto for Verdi, a letter between the two recalled.

Boito focused on Iago’s evil and disruption of Otello’s marriage to Desdemona, with a stolen handkerchief a key dramatic device, while Berio di Salsa portrayed a love triangle among Otello, Rodrigo and Desdemona, the plot turning on a letter with a lock of hair.

The libretto by Arrigo Boito, based loosely on the Victor Hugo play “Angélo, Tyran de Padoue,” takes place in 17th-century Venice.

Mr. Livermore points to the genius of the librettist Boito for capturing a full range of human emotion within three hours of opera.