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| Aida |
Last week I was fortunate to attend the opening performance
of Aida at the Sydney Opera House.
First an admission – this was the first opera that I have
ever seen live on stage. My experience with opera to this point has just been
listening to snippets of opera on the radio, and changing stations after just a
few notes of shrilled singing to another radio station with more pleasing music
to my ears.
The enjoyment of an evening out is all in the planning.
Arrange accommodation in Sydney
so that I did not have the four hour journey home after the performance. Tick –
enjoyed staying at the Metro Hotel on Pitt. Have a nice meal before the
performance. Tick – enjoyed dining at the Selah Restaurant. Sit next to an
aisle so that if I found the performance unbearable I could sneak out after
five minutes without anyone noticing. Cross – my seat was smack bang in the
centre of the theatre with no central aisle. Think - the opera will not be too
long, so I can sit it out. Cross – waiting for the first note to be played I
read in the program that this performance of Aida would last for three hours
fifteen minutes (with two twenty minute intervals).
So as the curtains opened I was not sure what to expect and
if I would love or hate my first performance at the Sydney Opera House. I was
soon put at ease by the sheer spectacle of Aida. There was not one moment that
I wanted to leave the performance – I actually enjoyed being there.
As this is the first opera I have ever seen, it is hard to
explain to the many other people who have not seen an opera what Aida is like.
To me it was like a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, with a handful of lead
character soloists interspersed with dramatic choral sections of a male and
female chorus. It was like the Les Miserables musical, with a sung narrative
and no spoken dialogue. It was like Cecil B DeMille movie, a grand epic
production. Pure opera buffs will say that Aida is nothing like these examples,
but I am drawing these comparisons as I have seen them and enjoyed them in
years gone by.
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| Aida |
The greatest fear I had about going to see Aida was that I
would not understand the storyline and have no idea of what it was all about,
especially as the opera was sung entirely in Italian and not English. To my
delight I found that I did understand what was happening in each scene. Apart
from the action and the emotions displayed on stage, two things assisted me in
my understanding. The first was reading the story of the opera outlined scene
by scene in the Aida Program, The second was the subtitles displayed high above
the stage. These were not like the tiring subtitles seen on TV shows, where
every sentence is translated and shown. Only key parts of songs were
displayed intermittently, so most of the time my eyes were fixed on the drama
unfolding on the stage, with only occasional glances at the subtitles.
Aida tells the story of the conflicts and tragic love
triangle between Aida, Radames and Amneris. Aida is an Ethiopian princess who
is a slave in Egypt.
Radames is a young warrior and aspiring commander who struggles to choose
between his love for Aida and allegiance to the Pharaoh of Egypt. To complicate matters more, the Pharaoh’s
daughter, the Egyptian princess Amneris, is deeply in love with Radames, who
does not return this love. The first act begins with Radames being granted his
wish to lead the Egyptian army against Ethiopia. Meanwhile, Amneris yearns
for Radames while suspecting there is a rival female vying for his affections.
After winning the battle, the Pharaoh promises Radames anything he wants.
Betrayal, feuding inner turmoil and tragedy follow. .
I found the themes of Aida to be both timeless and universal
- love, hate, war, allegiance, rewards, betrayal, heaven and earth, treason,
prayer, trickery, peace, rivalry and freedom Should a person be more
loyal to their country (a cause) , or to their lover (a person)?
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| Aida |
The Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra played
beautifully, with lots of brass horns, trumpets, trombones, cornets and tubas
adding richness and drama to moments such as the Triumphal Procession. The
strings (violins, violas, and cellos) and wind (flutes, oboes, clarinets,
bassoons, and piccolo) played during the more tender, loving and despairing
moments of Aida. All the music complemented the Egyptian setting. The orchestra
was ably led by Guest Concert Master, Laura Hamilton, and Leaders Huy-Nguyen
Bui and Catalin Ungureanu. Aida was conducted beautifully by Arvo Volmer and
directed by Graeme Murphy.
The singing was a grand display of technical mastery and
passion, and pleasing to my ears with few ‘glass shattering’ shrieks. The lead
male and female singers maintained their warmth of tone and vocal strength
throughout Aida right up until the final curtain came down. Their combination
of strong vibrato, rich vocal colour and dramatic storytelling created an
intense, moving experience even for those of us with little knowledge of opera
and its techniques. The Opera Australia Chorus was capably led by Michael Black
and Anthony Hunt, and served as a skilled backdrop that enhanced the singing of
the leads.
The dancers and actors were skilful in their performances,
enthusiastically creating the Ancient Egyptian mood of Aida. Their energy on
stage reminded me of some the groups of energetic young people performing their
routines on Australia’s
Got Talent.
The two lead females were wonderful in their parts. Milijana
Nikolic played Amneris, Princess of Egypt, and Latonia Moore played Aida, an
Ethopian Slave who was the handmaiden to Amneris. So much voice came from such
a tiny lady!
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| Aida |
On the male side of things, Radames, a captain in the Egyptian
army, was played admirably by Rosario La Spina. The King of Egypt, the father
of Amneris, was played by Jud Arthur and Amonasro, the King of Ethopia and
father of Aida, was played by Warick Fyle. The other roles of Ramfis, a High
Priest, played by Paul Whelan, Messenger played by Andrew Brunsdon and the High
Priestess played by Sharon Prero.
Even though the singing, dancing and acting were all great,
the stand out feature of Aida was the visuals of the stage production. There
were minimal stage sets as such, and apart from a large triangle which served
at times as a pyramid, or the ceiling of a tomb, or used as a projection
screen, the sets were largely created by different lighting effects. The
lighting designer, Damien Cooper, and projection designer, The Brothers Gruchy,
must have been inspired by Vivid Sydney, as they used similar concepts of the
light projections on the sails of the Opera House and front façade of Customs
House. The light projections were stunning and enabled quick set changes from
one Egyptian scene to the next and helped establish the mood of the various
parts of Aida.
Someone must have been to China and seen one of the wonderful
Chinese water theatre productions where the entire stage consists of a pool
that varies in depth when the pool floor is raised and lowered by hydraulics.
For Aida a lap pool went along the entire front of the stage and was used on
the odd occasion for some singers to caress with their hand, and used as the
Nile River for a swimmer .to emerge from.
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| Aida |
Another feature of the staging was the two moving conveyer
belts, set in the stage floor, between the pool and the sloped stage
behind. For most of Aida these were not switched on, and just formed part
of the stationary stage flooring. At appropriate moments these were turned on,
with the various cast members standing on them moving to the left or right,
towards each other or away from each other. I wondered what would happen if
someone accidentally sped them up and cast members were propelled at high speed
along them, something similar to that unforgettable chocolate factory scene in
the classic TV show “I Love Lucy” with the out-of-control conveyer belt.
An odd part of the setting was during the Triumphal
Procession. Interspersed amongst the cast members were cartoonish drawings of
Egyptian characters. Perhaps with the new carbon tax the producers had to cut
back on cast members to save money. Perhaps some of the cast were stricken with
illness at the last moment, so to fill in the blank spots in the procession
someone quickly grabbed their black texta and drew the outlines of the people.
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| Aida |
The costumes, designed by Roger Kirk, were stunning and
helped to reinforce Aida’s Ancient Egyptian setting. All the gold material –
and there was a lot of it - glistened under the spotlights in a whirl of
pageantry and splendour.
Aida was composed by Giuseppe Verdi in four months and was
based on ideas of Camille du Locie and
on a story by Auguste Mariette. Aida premiered in Cairo
way back in 1871, and played at all the major opera houses in Italy in the 1870s and 1890s. Aida
was first performed in Australia
in 1877 and is listed as number 13 of the most performed operas in the world.
This performance of Aida at the Sydney Opera House was
brilliant in all aspects. Verdi would have been proud of the way his creation
was portrayed on stage in Sydney
in 2012. I imagine that most of the people in attendance on this opening night
were experienced opera fans, and they showed there appreciation by applauding,
foot stomping and yelling at the end of the performance. I have seen this
reaction at popular concerts and shows; I wasn’t expecting this enthusiastic
response at an opera. The audience, consisting of people across the spectrum of
ages, including children, and youth, loved it.
I strongly suggest that if you are an opera fan and were not
at the opening night, make sure you book your ticket to see Aida at one of its
remaining performances. If you, like me,
have not seen an opera before, I urge you to come along and see Aida with open
expectations. This spectacular production of Aida is a wonderful introduction
to the world of opera. You will go away feeling uplifted from all the grandeur
and theatrics of Aida.
Theatre:
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| Sydney Opera House |
Opera Theatre, Sydney
Opera House,
Sydney Australia
Performances
July 17, 21 (matinee), 24, 28, 31
August 4 (matinee), 6
September 14, 19, 22, 29
October 2, 5,10 ,13 (matinee) 2012
Ticket Prices:.
Adults: $297 - $44
Concessions: $270 - $44
Concessions: $270 - $44
Children 16 & under $149 - $44
Booking Fees: $8.50 - Contact Centre, $8.50 – Internet,
$5.00 - Box Office Counter
Ticket Booking Enquires:
For all general booking enquiries please call the
Contact Centre on +61 2 9250 7777 or email
For more information click on the Opera Australia website
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