2401 AIDA 1989,2009, and 2012

I have experienced the Opera AIDA, live, three times although twice via a cinema relay from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. In 2009 and Saturday 16th December 2012. The other occasion was a large arena production at Earls Court in the 1980’s where we were so far from the stage at the back of the stalls that we quickly moved to the side with a view over looking the huge set from one side.

In 2009 I wrote  that “Yesterday I had one of the great cultural experiences of a lifetime, visually stunning, musical perfection and I still have the tingles from the rich power of the Metropolitan Opera House New York production  of Aida, relayed to the Tyneside Film Theatre in HD.

Then today I bought a subscription to the Library of previous productions, some 200, and watched the original production of Aida in 1989 with Dolora Zajick playing the same role as Princess Amneris as she had two decades later, yesterday.“

Now to these experiences I can add the 2012 production from the Met, viewed at the Cineworld Bolden at half the cost of that charged in Newcastle.

As a young man I had purchased an extended Play 45 record of the Rome Opera Chorus with the Triumphant march from Aida and after the mass audience performance at Earls Court had come to regard the opera as a spectacle with great interaction between powerful singers and a large chorus. It had taken  several decades to appreciate that this is a masterpiece for soloists and primarily a tragic triangle between two women and the man they  love.

This was a point well made by the new conductor at the Met Fabio Luisio in one of several interviews before and during the latest production which had two similar looking women with extraordinarily moving and powerful voices, the worldly experienced Russian Mezzo Soprano, Olga Borodina as the Princess and the mysterious Liudmyla Monastryrska in her debut role  outside the Latvian Opera House in the Ukraine, where she had toiled as a lead for many years unrecognised until now by the rest of the operatic world. Nothing appears to be published about this woman except that she had kept in contact with her singing teacher who was now ninety two. She needed the help of an interpreter for her brief interview..

The Opera is set in ancient Egypt as information reaches the court that the Ethiopians have invaded the country and Radamés, a favoured soldier, is entrusted with the responsibility of leading the army to drive out the enemy. The complication is that he in is love with Aida the Ethiopian slave assistant of the Princess  Amneris, the King’s daughter and heir, while the Princess is in love with him. The Princess urges her father to appoint Radames to defend the nation although she has suspicions that  her slave is also in love with her hero.

In addition to the three live performances I have also been fortunate to view via a Met Internet Subscription the 1989 production when the Princess was also played by Dolora Zajick, American by birth and who came to international attention as a top level performer with this role when in her late thirties and her voice with its power and range had fully developed. Then she also looked the passionate and jealous young woman so that in 2009, approaching her sixtieth year with the operatic frame to match, the first reaction was to be concerned at a portrayal of what is written in the libretto as a young Princes, especially if one did not know that she has sung the role to acclaim in a score of productions and some 250 performances and that it remains as strong and yet beautiful with a remarkable range. Her solo performances are breathtaking and rightly received the greatest applause in both performances experiences and applause which broke out in the cinema which is something I have not previously experienced since my childhood.

For the 2009 production the part of Radamés was played  by Johan Botha, a South African leading tenor who  has the build to match AIDA and Amneris and who then 54 was regarded as one of the great tenors of the present generation. However he cannot be compared with the 1989 production where the part was played by Placido Domingo then 50 and one of the most well known and loved tenor in the world, especially since the death of Pavarotti. Domingo has sung 128 roles, more than any other tenor, and opened the Metropolitan season 21 times, four more than Caruso.  In 1989 Aprile Millo played Aida when she was only 39 and proved she had a voice to match that of Domingo and Krajick and all three had a suburb dramatic presence which is often lacking in the productions which tour provincial theatres. The 2009 performance of Aida was played by Violeta Urmane, Urmanaviciute, a Lithuanian  aged 48.

Because of being the same generation the physical frames of the three singers connected in terms of passion and anguish  with its triangle of affections and conflict over nationality. What both sets of lead singers are able to accomplish is to make their performances so convincing that it should make young people rethink their attitudes to the older generation and their relationships. However having been excited and impressed by the performances of 2009 they were eclipsed by those of 1989 so I went to the Cineworld questioning if I was going to be disappointed.

In the present production the part of Radamés, the appointed army commander, is played by Roberto Alagna a man approaching his sixtieth year but who looks ten years younger with an extremely passionate and tender tenor voice. Used to powerful singers in the title role he was booed by some when he performed the role at La Scala Milan in 2006 and to the horror of the management he walked off the stage not to reappear. After the death of his first wife he married the great soprano Angela Gheorghiu but their relations became stormy to the extent that she refused to perform with him in the 2009 Metropolitan Production of Carmen which I also saw live and in truth felt he had  been miscast. The marriage has continued after separation and contrary to the audience reaction in Rome I thought he brought an important new dimension to the role and one which echoed the approach of the conductor. It has become more an opera of two parts

The second act tends to be that for which the reputation of the opera became established because of its visual spectacle. There is a vast cast of several hundred deployed to great effect. In addition to the Chorus there are about 100 individuals used  to represent the successful army and then the prisoners of War.  There are also dancers and animals in this instance horses specially trained to cope with the loud music, the singing and the marching. The tall, vast and cavernous stage at the Metropolitan is changed several times with scenery, weapons and uniforms which fill 17 pantechnicons. There are 150 stage hands required and the advantage of the relayed Met productions is that cameras show what happens in the two 30  minutes intervals. There are also some 40 to 50 make up artists and dressers also required, plus the stage management team and the full orchestra. Ticket sales account for half the production costs so on going private sponsorship and donations becomes essential as there is no public funding as in the UK.

Back to story and with Radames off to lead the army consecrated by the High Priest Ramfis at the Isis Temple  Aida is torn between anxiety for him and for her father the Ethiopian King, a fact which is unknown to the Egyptians.

In the first part of the second Act the Princess, having grown more suspicious of Aida tests by saying that Radamés has been killed and as a consequence Aida reveals her position, but hides her distress on learning that her people have been  defeated.

There is then the Triumphant March scene famous all over world because of its spectacle  with the climax when the prisoners are brought in and Aida sees her father, the king, in shackles. The Egyptian king offers Radamés anything he wishes so he pleads for the freedom for the slaves who are allowed to return home with the exception of Aida and her father who has said the King had died. The Egyptian King then throws the proverbial spanner in the works by giving Aida to Radamés in marriage, a gift which cannot be refused and which is to the great pleasure of Princess Amneris.

While there are half hour intervals between the first two acts, the changes between the third and fourth acts are made with the audience remaining in their seats. A feature of all Met Relays is that during the relays the lead singers are interviewed, by Renée Fleming, her  a lead soprano at the Opera house, followed by periods of 15 and 20 minutes where the audience can view the scene changers, followed by further interviews, in this instance a look at museum pieces of former productions of AIDA and a look at future productions in this 12 event relay season.

The final two acts are in major contrast to the second, concentrating on the relationship between the trio.  Amneris goes to Temple to pray until dawn and thus is in a position to overhear when Radamés and Aida meet in secret and he is persuaded by her to run away together after she has met up with her father and persuades her to try and find out the battle plans because his countryman have risen up and invaded once more to free their King and his daughter and gain revenge for the defeat and plundering of their country. Radamés, not aware of this aspect suggests they travel in a different  direction from the Egyptian army, unaware what he is doing as a consequence.

As soon as Radamés reveals the route plan, Aida‘s father reveals himself and he and his daughter beg Radamés to flee with them. He is horrified at having unwittingly given away the battle route information and when confronted by Amneris who has summoned the High Priest, he surrenders to their judgement. Their decision is for him to be entombed in the vaults below the temple, and this constitutes the final act after Amneris pleads with him to give up Aida and she will plead with her father to save him.  When he refuses she turns away from him, momentarily.

In the tomb Radamés finds that Aida having learned of the verdict has not accompanied her father and hidden in the tomb to wait for him. She explains that they will face death together in each other’s arms.

Meanwhile above them and unaware that the couple are together, the Princess is beyond consolation for having given Radamés over to the judgement of the Priests. While everything beforehand was outstanding it is the dramatic singing of the last act which for me  has taken operatic singing go a new height. There have been few  cultural experiences of a similar impact in my life, hearing traditional jazz first time in a Soho cellar,  hearing Verdi’s Requiem Mass at a Royal Albert Hall promenade season both when seventeen years old.  There have been other magical moments from the Live Aid Concert, to  the stage musicals Les Miserables and Miss Saigon, to the Bruce Springsteen concerts and to hearing Louis Armstrong playing half a century ago at the Davis Theatre in Croydon. I suspect that it was only from the accumulation of these and more general life experience emotional highs and lows than one can appreciate the magnificence of the voices and their emotional intensity.

“Then to be able to experience the original production using the same set and costumes and libretto added an even greater dimension to the experience. I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity and to now be able to experience more,” was how I the writing in 2009.

It is therefore against this benchmark that I most judge the latest production Borodina is good but no one can approach the emotional intensity of Zajick. I will need to experience the performance of the 1989 and 2009 roles of Aida again to compare with that of Liudmyla whose voice I thought matched that of Olga. For my Christmas present to myself  I have purchased the two DVDs which have become available together with the 2008 performance of Madam Butterfly.  Stefan Kocán was the priest, George Gagnidze played father and Miklos  Sebestyén the King.

It is because of the use of the camera close up that one is able to judge the emotional expressions which adds to the appreciation of singing where the exceptional artists are able to communicate emotional intensity through the voice as well as their technical abilities. Not therefore as good of  the performances of 1998 and 2009 but a very good experience.