Aida. Love And Betrayal Narrowly Defined

On a thin strip of stage not much wider that a table tennis table Opera North managed to conjure up the power, the passion and the tragedy that is Giuseppe Verdi's Aida.

Leeds Town Hall, a temple of the city's Victorian industrial prowess and economic might, is perhaps not an obvious venue in which to tell the story of the continuing wars between the pharaonic Egyptians and their Ethiopian southern neighbours. Nonetheless, it worked.

The fine acoustic, the steeply raked choir seats housing the 'Egyptians and Ethiopians' of the chorus, a stage large enough for a 60 piece orchestra, a compelling video and some atmospheric lighting were more than sufficient to transport the audience to a war torn land of bitter multi generational mutual destruction.

The wide arc of the stage was split into three parts; to the right the 14 sopranos, 12 mezzos, 14 tenors and 21 basses of the chorus; in the centre the highly decorated Town Hall organ pipes; to the right a suspended highly textured cloth onto which was projected a rich tapestry of scenes from the stage, and drone footage of a devastated city - Aleppo perhaps - serving both as a backdrop to the tragedy on stage and reminder that conflict in the Middle East is far from over.

And in front of all this was a full orchestra, at times a stage band of six trumpets and two tenor trombones, and running up and down that 'table tennis table' were 7 very fine soloists. This was a tour de force by Opera North, make no mistake.

Rafael Rojas, a stalwart of the company, delivered the role of Radames (the captain of the Egyptian military forces, and Aida's would-be lover) with all his usual passion and lyrical charm. Alessandra Volpe as Amneris (daughter of the Egyptian ruler), with her gorgeous sultry mezzo soprano vocal range, brought the fire and passion of her Italian heritage to the part.

Aida herself (the captured daughter of the king of the Ethiopians, and now a slave to Amneris) is a soul in torment; having fallen in love with Radames - the man who devastated her homeland - and obliged by her father to spy for the Ethiopians - and in doing so betray her lover. Really, all this fuss in the newspapers about Eastenders, there's so much more intrigue at the Opera!

Threading her way through the intrigue, Colombian soprano Alexandra Zabala deploys her beautifully pure tones to convey the innocence, affection and constancy of Aida, and her sacrificial ending was deeply poignant.


Yet again the concert staging by Opera North has been a delight. There's a wonderful immediacy about the direct sound from the orchestra. No longer does it have to squirrel its way up from the pit, losing precious upper harmonics as it does so.

In the 1960's a famous music producer called Phil Spectre 'invented' his many-times multitracked recordings described as a 'wall of sound'. Thanks to the concert staging of Opera North we can see that Giuseppe Verdi had pretty much mastered the art form way back in 1871.

Despite the narrowness of the stage, and possibly because of it, this is another beautiful performance by Opera North.