Simon Boccanegra is an opera with a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave , based on the play Simón Bocanegra ( 1843 ) by Antonio García Gutiérrez , whose play El trovador had been the basis for Verdi 's 1853 opera , Il trovatore .
The story was based on a play Simón Bocanegra ( 1843 ) by Antonio García Gutiérrez .