A quarter of a century elapses between the prologue and first act of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. By a bizarre coincidence, that’s exactly the same length of time since Bernard Holland has had anything remotely relevant or intelligent to say in print. His latest “efforts” are in today’s NY Times, but I’m not going to bother to link. After all, La Cieca is pretty sure that you all know the plot outlines of Simon Boccanegra and The Grapes of Wrath. Even though Holland was supposed to review actual live performances of these two operas (the latter a world premiere), he didn’t quite get around to writing anything you might call a “critique.” Instead, he cribbed a few lines from Cliff’s Notes, then slumped back into his usual banana-eared stupor.