Tuesday 24 July 2012

Aida - Spectacular Opera at Sydney Opera House


Aida
Last week I was fortunate to attend the opening performance of Aida at the Sydney Opera House.

First an admission – this was the first opera that I have ever seen live on stage. My experience with opera to this point has just been listening to snippets of opera on the radio, and changing stations after just a few notes of shrilled singing to another radio station with more pleasing music to my ears.

The enjoyment of an evening out is all in the planning. Arrange accommodation in Sydney so that I did not have the four hour journey home after the performance. Tick – enjoyed staying at the Metro Hotel on Pitt. Have a nice meal before the performance. Tick – enjoyed dining at the Selah Restaurant. Sit next to an aisle so that if I found the performance unbearable I could sneak out after five minutes without anyone noticing. Cross – my seat was smack bang in the centre of the theatre with no central aisle. Think - the opera will not be too long, so I can sit it out. Cross – waiting for the first note to be played I read in the program that this performance of Aida would last for three hours fifteen minutes (with two twenty minute intervals).

So as the curtains opened I was not sure what to expect and if I would love or hate my first performance at the Sydney Opera House. I was soon put at ease by the sheer spectacle of Aida. There was not one moment that I wanted to leave the performance – I actually enjoyed being there.

As this is the first opera I have ever seen, it is hard to explain to the many other people who have not seen an opera what Aida is like. To me it was like a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, with a handful of lead character soloists interspersed with dramatic choral sections of a male and female chorus. It was like the Les Miserables musical, with a sung narrative and no spoken dialogue. It was like Cecil B DeMille movie, a grand epic production. Pure opera buffs will say that Aida is nothing like these examples, but I am drawing these comparisons as I have seen them and enjoyed them in years gone by.

Aida
The greatest fear I had about going to see Aida was that I would not understand the storyline and have no idea of what it was all about, especially as the opera was sung entirely in Italian and not English. To my delight I found that I did understand what was happening in each scene. Apart from the action and the emotions displayed on stage, two things assisted me in my understanding. The first was reading the story of the opera outlined scene by scene in the Aida Program, The second was the subtitles displayed high above the stage. These were not like the tiring subtitles seen on TV shows, where every sentence is translated and shown.  Only key parts of songs were displayed intermittently, so most of the time my eyes were fixed on the drama unfolding on the stage, with only occasional glances at the subtitles.

Aida tells the story of the conflicts and tragic love triangle between Aida, Radames and Amneris. Aida is an Ethiopian princess who is a slave in Egypt. Radames is a young warrior and aspiring commander who struggles to choose between his love for Aida and allegiance to the Pharaoh of Egypt.  To complicate matters more, the Pharaoh’s daughter, the Egyptian princess Amneris, is deeply in love with Radames, who does not return this love. The first act begins with Radames being granted his wish to lead the Egyptian army against Ethiopia. Meanwhile, Amneris yearns for Radames while suspecting there is a rival female vying for his affections. After winning the battle, the Pharaoh promises Radames anything he wants. Betrayal, feuding inner turmoil and tragedy follow. .

I found the themes of Aida to be both timeless and universal - love, hate, war, allegiance, rewards, betrayal, heaven and earth, treason, prayer, trickery, peace, rivalry and freedom  Should a person be more loyal to their country (a cause) , or to their lover (a person)?  

Aida
The Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra played beautifully, with lots of brass horns, trumpets, trombones, cornets and tubas adding richness and drama to moments such as the Triumphal Procession. The strings (violins, violas, and cellos) and wind (flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and piccolo) played during the more tender, loving and despairing moments of Aida. All the music complemented the Egyptian setting. The orchestra was ably led by Guest Concert Master, Laura Hamilton, and Leaders Huy-Nguyen Bui and Catalin Ungureanu. Aida was conducted beautifully by Arvo Volmer and directed by Graeme Murphy.

The singing was a grand display of technical mastery and passion, and pleasing to my ears with few ‘glass shattering’ shrieks. The lead male and female singers maintained their warmth of tone and vocal strength throughout Aida right up until the final curtain came down. Their combination of strong vibrato, rich vocal colour and dramatic storytelling created an intense, moving experience even for those of us with little knowledge of opera and its techniques. The Opera Australia Chorus was capably led by Michael Black and Anthony Hunt, and served as a skilled backdrop that enhanced the singing of the leads.

The dancers and actors were skilful in their performances, enthusiastically creating the Ancient Egyptian mood of Aida. Their energy on stage reminded me of some the groups of energetic young people performing their routines on Australia’s Got Talent.

The two lead females were wonderful in their parts. Milijana Nikolic played Amneris, Princess of Egypt, and Latonia Moore played Aida, an Ethopian Slave who was the handmaiden to Amneris. So much voice came from such a tiny lady!

Aida
On the male side of things, Radames, a captain in the Egyptian army, was played admirably by Rosario La Spina. The King of Egypt, the father of Amneris, was played by Jud Arthur and Amonasro, the King of Ethopia and father of Aida, was played by Warick Fyle. The other roles of Ramfis, a High Priest, played by Paul Whelan, Messenger played by Andrew Brunsdon and the High Priestess played by Sharon Prero.

Even though the singing, dancing and acting were all great, the stand out feature of Aida was the visuals of the stage production. There were minimal stage sets as such, and apart from a large triangle which served at times as a pyramid, or the ceiling of a tomb, or used as a projection screen, the sets were largely created by different lighting effects. The lighting designer, Damien Cooper, and projection designer, The Brothers Gruchy, must have been inspired by Vivid Sydney, as they used similar concepts of the light projections on the sails of the Opera House and front façade of Customs House. The light projections were stunning and enabled quick set changes from one Egyptian scene to the next and helped establish the mood of the various parts of Aida.

Someone must have been to China and seen one of the wonderful Chinese water theatre productions where the entire stage consists of a pool that varies in depth when the pool floor is raised and lowered by hydraulics. For Aida a lap pool went along the entire front of the stage and was used on the odd occasion for some singers to caress with their hand, and used as the Nile River for a swimmer .to emerge from.

Aida
Another feature of the staging was the two moving conveyer belts, set in the stage floor, between the pool and the sloped stage behind.  For most of Aida these were not switched on, and just formed part of the stationary stage flooring. At appropriate moments these were turned on, with the various cast members standing on them moving to the left or right, towards each other or away from each other. I wondered what would happen if someone accidentally sped them up and cast members were propelled at high speed along them, something similar to that unforgettable chocolate factory scene in the classic TV show “I Love Lucy” with the out-of-control conveyer belt.

An odd part of the setting was during the Triumphal Procession. Interspersed amongst the cast members were cartoonish drawings of Egyptian characters. Perhaps with the new carbon tax the producers had to cut back on cast members to save money. Perhaps some of the cast were stricken with illness at the last moment, so to fill in the blank spots in the procession someone quickly grabbed their black texta and drew the outlines of the people.

Aida
The costumes, designed by Roger Kirk, were stunning and helped to reinforce Aida’s Ancient Egyptian setting. All the gold material – and there was a lot of it - glistened under the spotlights in a whirl of pageantry and splendour.

Aida was composed by Giuseppe Verdi in four months and was based on  ideas of Camille du Locie and on a story by Auguste Mariette. Aida premiered in Cairo way back in 1871, and played at all the major opera houses in Italy in the 1870s and 1890s. Aida was first performed in Australia in 1877 and is listed as number 13 of the most performed operas in the world.

This performance of Aida at the Sydney Opera House was brilliant in all aspects. Verdi would have been proud of the way his creation was portrayed on stage in Sydney in 2012. I imagine that most of the people in attendance on this opening night were experienced opera fans, and they showed there appreciation by applauding, foot stomping and yelling at the end of the performance. I have seen this reaction at popular concerts and shows; I wasn’t expecting this enthusiastic response at an opera. The audience, consisting of people across the spectrum of ages, including children, and youth, loved it.

I strongly suggest that if you are an opera fan and were not at the opening night, make sure you book your ticket to see Aida at one of its remaining performances.  If you, like me, have not seen an opera before, I urge you to come along and see Aida with open expectations. This spectacular production of Aida is a wonderful introduction to the world of opera. You will go away feeling uplifted from all the grandeur and theatrics of Aida.

Theatre:
Sydney Opera House
Opera Theatre, Sydney Opera House, 
Sydney Australia

Performances
July 17, 21 (matinee), 24, 28, 31
August 4 (matinee), 6
September 14, 19, 22, 29
October 2, 5,10 ,13 (matinee) 2012

Ticket Prices:.
Adults: $297 - $44
Concessions: $270 - $44
Children 16 & under $149 - $44
Booking Fees: $8.50 - Contact Centre, $8.50 – Internet, $5.00 - Box Office Counter

Ticket Booking Enquires:
For all general booking enquiries please call the Contact Centre on +61 2 9250 7777 or email 

For more information click on the Opera Australia website

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