SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Verdi,  Aida:   English National Opera at the London Coliseum. Soloists, chorus and orchestra of English National Opera cond. Edward Gardner. 10.11 2007 (ME)

(L-R) Jane Dutton as Amneris and John Hudson as Radames
 

Trekkies hungry for their next Convention should rush along to the Coliseum, where with only a little ocular adjustment they will be able to imagine themselves in one of the more outlandish galaxies, thanks to the plethora of otherworldly costume and make-up on display. The fact that some of the cast often seem to be singing in Klingon will make them feel even more at home. Of course, there is much else to draw one to the ENO for this production, and it certainly fulfils the all-important requirement of having all the trappings of a ‘big hit show,’ which ENO needs right now.

You can’t really update a classic piece of inherently daft ‘Grand Opera’ such as Aida, so it’s fortunately spared the AK47 treatment meted out to everything else from Giuilo Cesare to Fidelio: however, the idea with Opera Seria is that even though the singers barely move and can’t act for toffee it doesn’t matter because they are pouring out those liquid streams of sound, occasionally spiked with the ping of a B flat or a high C – there have been only two freaks (I use that term in its best sense) who could / can act convincingly whilst hurling out spot-on musical climaxes, those being Callas and Juan Diego Flórez. None of ENO’s current crop are pourers of liquid streams, and with two notable exceptions they are not actors either, so one has to ask why it was felt necessary to stage a new production of Aida here for the first time since 1979? One can only assume that the lure of a co-production designed by Zandra Rhodes was too much to resist, but really – give 4C a few big pots of turquoise and tangerine paint, assign one or two of the more reliable girls to gold glitter duty and let that new art teacher loose with her glossy brochure from the King Tut exhibition, and there you have it.
 

Claire Rutter as Aida

The vocal stars of the evening are the two bass-baritone kings, Gwynne Howell as the Pharaoh and Iain Paterson as Amonasro: Howell was a model of commanding stature as well as perfect diction, and I have seldom heard Aida’s father so convincingly portrayed as in Paterson’s assumption, with an especially fine plea to the victorious ruler in Act II. John Hudson’s Radames was this singer’s usual self, that is solid and reliable but hardly the stuff of which heroes are made, and Jane Dutton’s Amneris filled the role adequately if unexcitingly. Claire Rutter’s Aida has some lovely tender phrases at her disposal, and ‘Numi, pietà’ was well sung, but overall the voice lacks dramatic power and individuality.

The chorus sang brilliantly, the orchestra played finely for Edward Gardner, and the production is bright to the point of garishness, and chimes in nicely with the ‘Egyptian’ theme which London will soon experience with the Tutankhamen exhibition. However, it is soulless in the extreme: when Radames enters his tomb he is lowered via a steel cage from what appears to be the only opening, making nonsense of how Aida is supposed to have slipped in there. As they sang’ O, terra, addio’ I’m afraid I was entirely unmoved – but I have to be fair and remark that the lady next to me was dabbing at her eyes during the entire scene. A palpable hit, obviously, with her, and sure to delight those who love a traditional staging enlivened with plenty of colour.


Melanie Eskenazi

Pictures © Tristram Kenton/English National Opera
 

Back to Top                                                    Cumulative Index Page