Aida – Maintaining The Drama Of Opera

Three countries in as many nights, a director named after a county and a trio of deaths from consumption, suicide and, finally, in Verdi’s Aida, death of the two main protagonists after they are buried alive: welcome to my 72-hour operatic journey courtesy of Ellen Kent!

A former editor once told me the story of a newspaper called ‘Good News’. “It folded in a fortnight,” he said, “people just like to wallow in tragedy!”.

And, so it would seem, the same is true of opera where a little death and destruction seemingly fills theatres as effectively as the poverty and suicide of Les Miserables or, for that matter, the betrayal articulated so beautifully in Miss Saigon!

Aida is on a grander scale than Thursday’s La Boheme or Madama Butterfly although, at its heart, it is still about love, betrayal and themes close to the human heart.

Only this time rather than a Parisienne garret or a Japanese pagoda, the action takes place in ancient Egypt and tells of the love of Radames, the captain of the guard (Sorin Lupu), for the slave girl Aida (Olga Perrier).

She is the daughter of Amonasro, King of Ethiopia (Olexandr Forkushak), who is captured by Radames and the victorious Egyptian troops. Tricked into betraying military secrets, Radames is condemned to be buried alive.

He is secretively joined by the conflicted Aida in his tomb and she dies with him, while Amneris, the King of Egypt’s daughter (Natalia Matveeva), who has loved Radames in vain, prays for him.

Again the vocals are strong, however, unlike general casting which tends to take place for shows in London’s West End and Broadway, opera companies carry their own double-edged sword, in this case the Ukrainian Opera Ballet Theatre.

The experience and talent is there and, because they are a touring group, there is a genuine sense of on-stage community, however, as much as the women are in their prime, the men made lyrics like: “…listen young hero,” sound a little out of kilter and, sadly, the “avenging warriors” were in need of Lucozade!

Olga Perrier’s Aida is well cast vocally and visually but her male lead is, to coin a phrase, knocking on a bit! “I just didn’t fancy him,” said my wife.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I did fancy Aida! And therein lies the problem, great talent but a small pool of people, limiting the ability to cast all rounders who can sing and look the part.

However, such comments to one side, the sets and costumes were a blaze of colour and visually stunning, even if some of the cast make up was a little too traditional and very ‘heavy’: modern lighting has moved on from the days when red dots were needed in the centre of the eye!

Local thespians made up numbers at the Egyptian court – a little under-rehearsed perhaps – but with a beautiful Andalucian horse to marvel at and four giant statues of the Egyptian goddess Bastet complementing the lifelike set, who’s worrying?

It would be remiss of me not to mention those people you cannot see – the wonderful, tight orchestra under the baton of Vasyl Vasylenko, probably one of Eastern Europe’s most experienced conductors with time at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre and Ukraine’s famous Odessa Opera House.

This is an opera full of passion as much as it is tragic and, as usual, the principals gave it their all.

Despite being full of artistic merit and vocal commitment, the time has arrived where younger men need to step downstage and some of the ‘older’ male leads need to either join the ranks of the chorus, take roles more appropriate to their age or, indeed, become role models for younger principals waiting in the wings for their big break.

A great 72 hours!