Verdi: Aida -- Royal Opera House [DVD]

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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. 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 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.

If colour was absent from the stage, then there was plenty of it in the pit where Antonio Pappano mined all the subtleties of the score, from the most delicate string sound to the heights of orchestral opulence. Time and again, the sensitivity of his reading brought balance, and human warmth, to the grim austerity of the design and the tragic tone of the drama. To take just one moment, Aida’s wrenching mourning after she has been condemned by her father: here, the soft darkness of the lower strings and bassoon wonderfully underscored Aida’s desolation and the pathos of her lament. Actors Jamie Francis, Gregor Copeland, Rain De Rye Barrett, Chris Edgerley, David Galea, Jonathon Hands, Kyle Harrison-Pope, Jamal Lowe, Eduardo Nunez, Suleiman Suleiman

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ON’s Masque of Might with its message of impending environmental catastrophe has a significant impact (21/11/2023) Sadly, due to a family illness, Angel Blue is unable to perform the role of Aida on 23, 27 May and 1 June. She will be replaced by Christina Nilsson. The autumn season of Jamiel Devernay-Laurence’s Ballet Nights reaches its Grande Finale (26/11/2023)

Chelsea Opera Group’s Un ballo in maschera on 22 October opened their 2023-24 London season (10/10/2023) 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. But just listen to the first few bars of that overture. Where he might have opened with the sort of military pomp that comes later, Verdi spins a single gossamer line. Lives hang by a thread in this opera. A whisper, overheard, and not a shout, can change everything when love and duty collide.

The cast sees several figures return from the first time round, and some Covent Garden favorites return. Ludovic Tézier and Soloman Howard reprise Amonasro and Ramfis respectively. The latter was granite-like voice as a cold, unsentimental fanatic in a chilling characterization; his attachment to duty is quite different to Radamès, who is a romantic heart – Howard’s Ramfis was all dead-eyed resolve and sense of destiny. His accusatory cries of “Radamès” in the trial sequence were cavernous. In many ways, Aida is bound up with contemporary history, however. When Ismail Pasha, the new Viceroy of Egypt, arrived in Paris to represent his country at the Exposition universelle in June 1867, the Egyptian pavilion that he had erected on a large corner of the Champs de Mars – featuring, among myriad things, a pharaoh’s temple, a modern-day bazaar, and a panorama of the Isthmus of Suez created by the Suez Canal company – was described by one French commentator as ‘a living Egypt, a picturesque Egypt, the Egypt of Ismail Pasha’. His lavish spectacle was almost certainly designed to present Egypt as a major player on the modern world stage, and this idea also lay behind his commission, two years later, of Verdi’s Aida, which was to be performed in Cairo’s first opera house, positioned beside the recently opened Suez Canal. Mezzo-Sopranos Maria Brown, Siobhain Gibson, Zoë Haydn, Maria Jones, Clare McCaldin, Hyacinth Nicholls, Dervla Ramsay, Jennifer Westwood In a wonderful night for male voices, Korean bass In Sung Sim is a 21st-century pharaoh, an idolised figurehead, served by a vast army, meticulously drilled. French baritone Ludovic Tézier as Amonasro leads his vanquished people with rage and passion. But it is American bass Soloman Howard as Ramfis -– originally a high priest, here a General – who, in a Covent Garden debut to remember, drew the loudest cheers from a delighted first night audience.

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. 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. We are delighted to share details of the brand-new Cinema Season from The Royal Opera House.The 2022-23 season will be the biggest season yet with 13 world-classproductions– seven operas and six ballets.CALLAS – PARIS, 1958 in cinemas soon should not be missed by opera lovers of whatever vintage (06/11/2023)

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. Dancers Bradley Applewhaite, Eamonn Cox, Nolan Edwards, Cameron Everitt, Tristan Ghostkeeper, Martin Harding, Vincent Merouze, Chris Otim, Anthony Pereira, Dominic Rocca, Trevor SchoonraadFor the first time ever, two opening nightlive broadcasts – Mayerlingand The Royal Ballet: A Diamond Celebration