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Verdi: Aida -- Royal Opera House [DVD]

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Ramfis and his acolytes are no longer mystics but senior military staff. The temple – spare wooden benches and gray walls like one of Le Corbusier’s chapels – has no religious iconography that motivates this society’s military purpose, save a few flags. It is war, duty, sacrifice themselves that are sacralized, as the chorus hold their assault rifles aloft as if divinely blessed. The sets are shaped so as to feel both claustrophobic and imposing. Amonasro, leader of the Ethiopians, is cast in Act three as a paramilitary guerrilla, as if to suggest myriad recent contemporary global insurgent wars, though his ruthlessness with Aida suggests doesn’t prompt us to feel that much sympathy for the wretched of the earth. Egypt is at war with Ethiopia. Aida, daughter of the Ethiopian King Amonasro, has been captured and made prisoner. She now serves Amneris, the Egyptian King’s daughter, but Aida has concealed her true identity. In this, his penultimate annual season at Covent Garden before moving to the London Symphony Orchestra, it is tempting to reach out and beg him to stay. Drawing stirring ensemble playing and intimate solos from the orchestra, he is also superbly served by the strong and immaculate chorus, always on parade or on manoeuvres and rejoicing in violence, even as interpreted in dance by choreographer Rebecca Howell. With its glamorous Egyptian setting, complete with exotic animals in some spectacular productions, Verdi’s Aida has become a defining grand opera. Chelsea Opera Group’s Un ballo in maschera on 22 October opened their 2023-24 London season (10/10/2023)

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Stellar performances from Angel Blue and SeokJong Baek in Robert Carsen’s Aida

To protests and frayed nerves, Abomination: A DUP Opera by Conor Mitchell was given its world premiere at the Outburst Queer arts festival in Belfast in 2019. The work’s central character, Iris Robinson, is no fictional antihero but a former Democratic Unionist party politician, married to the former first minister of Northern Ireland. The opera’s verbatim text – grotesque language set to often tender, voluptuous music – is drawn from comments made by Robinson, a born-again Christian, and other DUP members expressing hatred of homosexuality. Robinson’s own extramarital affair, breakdown and suicide attempt have long fuelled gossip-columns in the region. To make opera out of such toxic ingredients was daring, but the work won ovations. Golden-toned: Francesco Meli as Radames, with Elena Stikhina as Aida. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/the Guardian

Aida – Elena Stikhina, Radamès – Francesco Meli, Amneris – Agnieszka Rehlis, Amonasro – Ludovic Tézier, Ramfis – Soloman Howard, King of Egypt – In Sung Sim, High Priestess – Francesca Chiejina, Messenger – Andrés Presno; Director – Robert Carsen, Conductor – Sir Antonio Pappano, Set Designer – Miriam Buether, Costume Designer – Annemarie Woods, Lighting Designers – Robert Carsen and Peter van Praet, Choreographer – Rebecca Howell, Video Designer – Duncan McLean, Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House.

There’s an enduring story that the premiere of Verdi’s Aida featured a dozen elephants in Act 2’s triumphal procession. Disappointingly that’s a myth, but there’s at least one of them still lurking in the room now whenever an opera company takes on the work, one that gets bigger and wrinklier with the years: how to stage today an “exotic” story of Egypt and Ethiopia, seen through 19th-century Italian eyes? This reviewer just wishes (for the entire company’s sake) that Verdi had not written the second half. For any optimist and even most romantics, it is simply an excrutiating hour of misery, blame, recrimination and human stupidity. There are few redeeming moments and the final tomb scene — which here is actually an underground bomb storage depot — is one of the most foolishly morose to ever feature in the work of a genius as notable and loved as Guiseppe Verdi, (so we must lay the blame squarely at the feet of his librettist Antonio Ghislanzoni). Ramfis ( Solomon Howard) who is ordinarily a High Priest, here appears as an intimidating senior military attaché whilst the rest of the junta wouldn’t have appeared out-of-place in Mubarak’s Egypt. When he presents the General with the icon which will lead Egypt to victory in battle, here it manifests as a Kalashnikov assault rifle. Tightly choreographed set pieces involve the enormous chorus and dancers who have been drilled into a marching/fighting machine equal to any found on an equivalent parade ground or battlefield. Aside from the assault rifle distribution scene, the 2 other notable unsung orchestral interludes give rise to an inspection of the guard by the king and the laying of the victory banquet table. Both are inspired choices and add considerably to the audience’s enjoyment — if only due to the excited nervousness which comes from anticipating whether every chorus member will have managed to reach his/her designated place by the last note.

It is 20 years since Sir Antonio Pappano was first named music director of the Royal Opera House, then the youngest person to have held this post. Two decades later, audiences know that in the Italian repertoire in particular the orchestra and chorus of the Royal Opera are in hands not only expert but thoughtful, passionate and kind.The performance was dominated by two artists: the Amneris of Elīna Garanča and the conducting of Sir Mark Elder. Elder found such detail in the score – the orchestra played at its very best for him throughout, the opening of the first act beautifully, keenly phrased, the great musical arches of the big choral scenas perfectly traced. Elder is a man of the theatre, and how it showed. As for Elīna Garanča, she dominated the stage throughout, effortlessly, her voice strong, resolute and rich from her first entrance. Worth mentioning, as the Aida on this occasion, Angel Blue, took a little while to warm into the role of the captured Ethiopian princess (also in contrast to Elena Stikhina last time round). Once she had centred herself, though, Blue’s vocal strength was all there (a fine ‘O patria mia’) – a pity she did not show an equal dramatic presence to that of Garanča.

Angel Blue took on the title role of Aida. Vocally there was a bright, gilded edge to the sound; this brought an urgency and intensity to the character, and a palpable sense of desperation. It also meant that Blue had little difficulty clearing the orchestra in the biggest climaxes, even if there were fewer colors and shades available above the stave. The velvety textures and muted colors of her middle register were thoroughly absorbing in more inward moments, especially when joined with Blue’s luxurious portamento . In the very highest reaches her vibrato veered a little wide, and intonation lost its focus as a result. But such foibles aside there were many standout moments. Act three’s “O patria mia” sequence showed glorious musical and dramatic range, as well as the limpid ensuing duet with Radamès.

Sopranos Angela Caesar, Celeste Gattai, Kathryn Jenkin, Bernadette Lord, Alison Rayner, Anna Samant, Rosalind Waters, Vanessa Woodfine For the first time ever, two opening nightlive broadcasts – Mayerlingand The Royal Ballet: A Diamond Celebration Ferocity and heartbreak’: Elīna Garanča, right, as Amneris, with Angel Blue in the title role, in the Royal Opera’s Aida. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian The somewhat grey staging remains unremittingly bleak; as war itself is, of course. We are a long way away from Egypt here (although at one point the elevated viewpoint did reveal a decidedly pyramidal shadow!); the militaristic setting is unnamed, a conflation of several territories, and therefore a reminder that the machinations of war continue whatever the era. Video footage of war reminds us of its terrors in no uncertain fashion, and perfectly delivered in Duncan McLean’s video designs, while the ballet acts out conflict to fine effect. Although cast on a grand scale, the sets do feel somewhat claustrophobic, and deliberately so – the final, offstage calls of ‘Pace, pace, pace’ by Amneris made all the more effect for it. But the whole was so much more than the sum of its parts thanks to Elder’s sure direction, delivering real, spine-tingling grandeur in the choral scenes while balancing chorus and orchestra impeccably.

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