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.

Mark Elder brought a masterful sound out of the house orchestra, using Verdi’s innovative orchestration to create a fresh soundworld for every scene. Tension and terror alongside triumph and tender love were all convincingly carried by the orchestra, heightening the drama. Vedi’s fiendish and exposed woodwind moments sounded gorgeous, as were Concertmaster Sergey Levitin’s solos. ROH’s Aida is a fresh take on the score’s perennial themes of love, power and war and is well worth a visit. Cast: Elena Stikhina(Aida), Francesco Meli(Radames), Agnieszka Rehlis(Amneris), Ludovic Tézier(Amonasro), Soloman Howard(Ramfis), In Sung Sim(King of Egypt) Awaiting his trial, Amneris implores Radames to deny the charges against him. Radames, believing Aida to have been killed, says he longs for death. Amneris tells him that Amonasro has been killed, but that Aida has escaped. If Radames denies his love for Aida, she will save him. Radames refuses. Amneris, furious, leaves him to be tried and convicted. In front of the court, Radames refuses to answer Ramfis’ accusations. He is found guilty and sentenced to die by being entombed alive. Amneris, unable to persuade Ramfis to overturn the sentence, desperately curses her jealousy as well as those who sentenced Radames to death. As Radames is sealed into his tomb, a figure appears in the darkness. It is Aida, who has hidden there to die with him. Alone at last, with the voices of the Egyptians echoing above them, Radames and Aida wait for death to take them to a better world. Plenty of opportunities for the Chorus of the Royal Opera House to shine in this grand spectacle, which they did (notwithstanding a temporary disagreement with Elder about tempo in Act two, which will presumably iron itself out). Nothing is more exciting than quiet singing – the Act one scene in the temple saw superlative, feather-soft singing from the men of the chorus, the sound veiled and blooming. It was an unearthly moment of beauty that hinted at some residual humanity hidden behind the bellicose world of the opera.The Radames of SeokJong Baek was ringing and resonant, though Verdi’s two-dimensional character remained flat. As Aida, the American soprano Angel Blue was at times uneven vocally, but her natural, compelling stage presence won out. Reprising their roles. Ludovic Tézier showed pain and anger as Aida’s father, Amonasro, and Soloman Howard was calm and masterly as Ramfis, The ROH chorus (directed by William Spaulding) showed their world-class skill. The artist who represents his country and his time becomes necessarily universal in the present and in the future.’ So Verdi wrote to the Neapolitan painter Domenico Morelli on 27 th February 1871. One hundred and fifty years later, while not everything in this production comes off, Robert Carsen’s Aida might be said to illuminate the rightness of the composer’s words. For the first time ever, two opening nightlive broadcasts – Mayerlingand The Royal Ballet: A Diamond Celebration The autumn season of Jamiel Devernay-Laurence’s Ballet Nights reaches its Grande Finale (26/11/2023) A high-level cast and ‘La Dolce Vita’ setting charm from the get-go in San Francisco Opera’s The Elixir of Love (27/11/2023)

Cross-cultural impulses inspire the opening concert of Hong Kong Musicus Society’s 2023 festival (28/11/2023) Aida and Amneris, on the other hand, have a really interesting relationship, rivals who are almost sympathetic towards each other. The remarkable Polish mezzo-soprano Agnieszka Rehlis, also making her house debut, is the imperious Amneris, her voice smouldering with deep desire as she struts in Megan-style caped dresses.

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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. Dancers Bradley Applewhaite, Eamonn Cox, Nolan Edwards, Cameron Everitt, Tristan Ghostkeeper, Martin Harding, Vincent Merouze, Chris Otim, Anthony Pereira, Dominic Rocca, Trevor Schoonraad 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? Mark Elder, conducting, seems to have Verdi pumping through his veins. This was his night. He steered the epic moments as well as the subtle, spare scoring of the intimate passages, every moment steeped in maximum drama. Aida devotees will rail against the production – not generally liked much when it was new – and the liberties taken with the plot (I don’t remember Verdi specifying a table-laying scene). But Carsen’s interpretation gives the characters definition and clarity. As one who has always struggled with this work, I found it illuminating. In closing it is worth mentioning newcomer Andrés Presno whose brief appearance as the Messenger presaged a great future. Who knows, he may be delivering his own Radamés in the not-too-distant future.

The safety of our visitors, staff and artists is still our priority. There are hand sanitiser stations throughout the building. To help us provide a comfortable experience for everyone, please be mindful of others and their personal space.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. 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.