"Sondra Radvanovsky, in her Canadian Opera Company debut, triumphs over director Tim Albery’s misbegotten production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida, one of the grandest of grand 19th-century operas.
Radvanovsky is a dramatical force of nature despite being dressed as dowdy modern-day cleaning woman, complete with chronically aching back and unwashed hair. This presentation’s saving graces were first-rate singing and a stirring, richly textured reading of the score, vibrantly rendered by the COC Orchestra under its music director, Johannes Debus.Tenor Rosario La Spina sounded strong as Radames in his COC debut, without alas little chemistry between him and his beloved Aida. Mezzo Jill Grove, also in a COC debut, was impressive as Egyptian princess Amneris.Other strong performances belong to basses Phillip Ens as Ramfis and Alain Coulombe's King of Egypt.The vocal and dramatic sparks really flew when Scott Hendricks as Aida’s father Amonasro sang with a rich sound."
Albery’s staging, designer Hildegard Bechtler’s drab, fussy (why all those boxes?) set, Thomas C. Hase’s murky even moody lighting as well as director Albery’s unquenching penchant to add subtext and something meta-theatrical, were definitely thought to be a huge drawback.
Why do so many 'modern' productions try to out-do others in psycho babble?
It is a mystery to me.
By all means be less lavish if you will,
be reasonably modern in sets and costumes,
but spare me the 'psychological justifications' of directors who see operas as social and/or educational tools to 'edify' the music loving audience, who - let me perfectly clear -probably could care less than tuppence about that.. just let the singers shine, let the music swell, and let our ears and eyes drink in the glory THAT IS opera.
AIDA was the very FIRST opera I saw (standing room only) at Vienna Staatsoper at the 'curious about opera age' of 13 and have been hooked on opera ever since!
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| and with Grove as Amneris |
And to remind you what a splendid production of AIDA could look like, enjoy this scene -Triumph March
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