Other Links
Editorial Board
- UK Editors
- Roger Jones and John Quinn
Editors for The Americas - Bruce Hodges and Jonathan Spencer Jones
European Editors - Bettina Mara and Jens F Laurson
Consulting Editor - Bill Kenny
Assistant Webmaster -Stan Metzger
Founder - Len Mullenger
Google Site Search
SEEN AND HEARD UK
OPERA REVIEW
Act I
Previously when David McVicar has directed opera is has mostly been provocative and thought-provoking. However, with this Aida he has put something on stage that is - for long stretches of the evening - rather dull and tawdry to the eye. The production deserves to be retired now but - I fear - is destined to run and run as it provides a fairly cost-effective backdrop to four or so principal singers who can come in a few days before the performance to be walked round the set and told where to stand - and then be left to get on with it without further direction: witness the relative success of the 'new' Aida Liudmyla Monastyrska who came in at the very last moment - and after the dress rehearsal - when the previously announced singer decided she was pregnant and could not fulfil her contract.
Most of the faults I saw in this production's first appearance
are still valid (review)
but now there is even less attention of the original detail (much
of the elaborate face painting seems no more) and the main singers
now just about acknowledge each other on stage before facing
steadfastly forward to sing to the back of the auditorium. Sing
out they certainly do as this was just about the loudest Aida
I have ever heard I think these broadly acted performances - the
'acting' was often, to be truthful, non-existent - would be
entirely appropriate in an arena situation but in the theatre it
is of the sort that Mahler first tried to eradicate from stagings
of opera over a hundred years ago!
It cannot help the prospects of success of this Italian opera
par excellence that nobody was actually Italian; among the
main cast there was one Frenchman (albeit of Sicilian descent), a
Russian, two Ukrainians, a German, an American, a New-Zealander
and one British singer. Ms Monastryrka has probably made an
international name for herself with this Aida but it
cannot disguise the fact that she sang Italian with what appeared
to be a strong Ukrainian dialect and very few words were
discernible. The Italian coach, Marco Canepa, should get a chance
to work with her now and this may improve.
At least when you sit down in the opera house you can often be
assured of over-hearing something memorable. On this occasion it
was 'Oh, Aida is a slave and she is a princess too' - as the
synopsis was read out aloud to 'inform' a couple about what they
had come to see. The programme book was particularly informative
and it reminded me again how Aida has been accused of
'presenting an Imperialist vision of Egypt and thereby of the
Orient as a whole'. In truth, there has never seemed to be more of
Meyerbeer to Aida then there is in McVicar's 'vision' -
'effects without cause' as Wagner put it. The programme book
actually never tells us whether human sacrifice was rampant in
Egypt and he turns the usual 'Glory to Egypt' into the 'Gory of
Egypt' as all the pageantry and the grandeur that are inherent in
the music - the triumphal march or the ballet for example - are
much diminished in this production by all the blood letting, as
well as, the huffing and puffing sword-wielding or simulated
male-female, female-female couplings. We are clearly meant to be
siding with the proud Ethiopians against the cruel and
vainglorious Egyptians.
Act II
While Jean-Marc Puissant's rotating installation art wall - from a
warehouse rehearsal space perhaps - with its long spear-like
accretions, plus the crowd scenes and frequently gyrating bodies
do provide some limited 'spectacle' in the first two acts;
'inspiration' - or more possibly money - has run out for Acts III
and IV and it is little more than a semi-staging. There is no
place for Amonasro to hide and overhear Radames and Aida and he
ends up about two metres away from them and there is no real sense
of entombment at the end. It is clear again how Moritz Junge has
referenced almost every tribal culture for his costumes - apart
from Ancient Egypt - and there is too little distinction between
the priesthood and anyone else.
In fact I return to how I began this review: there are in fact two
things going on in this production and McVicar has made no real
attempt to unite the 'grander' moments when the stage is full of
supernumeraries with his principal singers often left to their own
devices towards the front. As such it becomes just a showcase for
the singers the Royal Opera can engage from those available and
its current eleven performances are mostly doubly cast … and there
are three tenors for Radames.
On this first night apart from the Covent Garden debutant,
Liudmyla Monastyrska, Roberto Alagna was singing the role for the
first time at Covent Garden. He was in stentorian voice but I wish
he had channelled his inner-Bergonzi rather than singing like Jon
Vickers. His performance was too self-absorbed, and however
stirring the sound he produced there was too little refinement in
his vocalism and too little engagement with what he was singing
about. At the curtain call, with a protective arm around his Aida,
he showed more connection with her than he had during the actual
opera itself.
There can be few finer mezzos singing this Italian repertoire than
Olga Borodina. Her voice has an incredible range and is strong,
sonorous and piercing: she almost seemed capable of matching her
Aida note-for-note at times. Her imperious portrayal of Amneris is
one that I suspect she takes with her from opera house to opera
house regardless of the production she is engaged for.
The smaller roles were cast from strength though I felt both
Ramfis and Amonasro are opportunities where British singers might
be given a chance for career development; witness British bass
Brindley Sherratt's commanding presence as the King of Egypt. He
sang superbly in the role - that is presented here as a grand
inquisitor - and will get his chance as Ramfis in the last three
performances. He should have been singing it throughout the run
given that Vitalij Kowaljow was a disappointment with his
idiomatically Slavic-sounding Ramfis. Michael Volle is an
excellent German lieder and German opera singer and
whilst he sang with typical dramatic conviction and
expressiveness, he was more Alberich than Amonasro.
In the programme book it was written that an Aida performance by
Adelina Patti was once described as follows: 'There was a new note
of tragic feeling in her voice and she seemed to embrace the whole
gamut of human misery and passion'. That Liudmyla Monastyrska
never did. Her voice is a thrilling raw instrument and less
destined for a career in spinto roles than as Strauss heroines or
Brünnhilde I would guess. Her voice is clear and bright-toned with
top Bs and Cs of clarion power, although it is not used - as yet -
with any subtlety or beauty.
The chorus were their usual excellent
selves, forthright and well-balanced and the conductor, Fabio
Luisi, is to be applauded for not indulging his singers with an
energetic, propulsive and exhilarating account of the score but
one that very occasionally left his singers lagging behind his
beat.
Jim Pritchard
Pictures © Bill Cooper /
The Royal Opera