Aida

by Giuseppe Verdi (libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni)

seen at the Coliseum on 9 October 2017

Phelim McDermott directs and Keri-Lynn Wilson conducts this new production of Aida with sets designed by Tom Pye. The principal singers are Latonia Moore as Aida, Gwyn Hughes Jones as Radamès, Michelle DeYoung as Amneris and Musa Ngqungwana as Amonasro, with Robert Winslade Anderson as Ramfis and Matthew Best as the Pharaoh. 

The opera, famous for some very grand crowd scenes (in particular the triumphal march in the second act) actually hinges on several very intimate personal encounters, given that the central dilemma is that of divided loyalties - those of Aida between her love for Radamès and for her father Amonasro and her fatherland; and those of Radamès between his love for Aida, and Ethiopian princess, and his loyalty to his own country of Egypt. Complicating this is the unrequited love of the princes Amneris for Radamès. Despite the opportunities for bombast, the opera opens with an extremely quiet prelude, and concludes with the two lovers expiring in a tomb while Amneris prays quietly for forgiveness.

McDermott has chosen to emphasise the darker aspects of the plot, and the production is on the whole somber and static, though not especially ancient Egyptian. There are nods towards hieroglyphics and Egyptian architecture, but they are symbolic rather than realistic, and the costumes are more or less modern - the great triumphal march actually includes soldiers carrying in coffins draped in military flags, making a downbeat impression even as it links the Egyptian passion for funerary glory with the modern idea of 'full military honours'. The extensive ballet sequences in the score are performed by members of Improbable, the troupe who provided such astonishing accompaniment to McDermott's ENO production of Philip Glass's Akhnaten last year, but their contributions here are less spectacular. Indeed, though ritual is important in this Aida it is much less mesmerising than in Akhnaten. 

The principal singers are all good, though Michelle DeYoung's Amneris was badly served my the most peculiar billowing costumes, and her diction was bedevilled by tortuous vowel sounds. Gwyn Hughes Jones portrayed a masterful Radamès undone by his passions but then firm in his will to accept punishment. Latonia Moore was excellent as Aida, conveying her emotional torment with great expressiveness and with a wonderful tone that dominated even the most passionate outbursts of the orchestra.

One review I've read criticised the production for being too static, with too much 'stand and deliver' singing. It is true that the personal interactions are managed with little dramatic action, and there are a number of long soliloquies given in front of black curtains with perhaps a sliver of diagonal light gleaming through the parting - but to me this worked well as much of what is sung by the characters displays their inner turmoils rather than their direct responses to others. I found the overall effect more satisfying than the production designed by Zandra Rhodes for ENO ten years ago.