It is a shame really because Aida is such a great opera and one of Verdi's best. I have seen some great Aidas, 3 from the Met(with Leontyne Price, -her farewell performance actually- Aprile Millo and the recent one Metropolitan Opera:Live in HD series), Daniela Dessi's and the Pavarotti San Francisco performance, so there is evidence that Aida can be done well. This, from St Margarethan, and Bregenz are examples of how not to do Aida however.
There are things that are good. The sets are the definition of grand and epic and they are very colourful and ornate, and I loved the horses and the elephants, they looked amazing and gave the feeling of being in Egypt. The camera work is wonderful as well, dynamic and unobtrusive and the intermission fireworks are filmed with an obvious sense of love. Two performances are good, Eszter Sumegi and Igor Morosow. Sumegi gives a very dignified and deeply felt performance as Aida(a very believable character here), more than what this production deserved to be quite frank, and apart from a somewhat tight vibrato her singing has the lyricism and power the role needs and done with intelligence. Morosow has a very powerful voice for Amonasro and lets rip in his big angry moment in the Act 3 duet between him and Aida, and he is an actor that is fatherly and firm, perhaps in his more forceful moments he could have let himself go a little bit more.
However, the costumes are cheap-looking and dull. They also don't fit with the setting, in colour, in look and in correlation to the settings(colourful and grand next to dull and cheap, not a good match). And the stage direction was far too busy and outlandish, and actually swamps the story and characters. The best scene was the scene between Aida and Amonasro in Act 3, on a bare stage and quite intimate in stage-directing, this was an intense and moving moment that was a welcome change from everything else, it also helps that the best singing-acting overall was in this scene. Amneris rushing across the stage like Brunnhilde, Radames' laborious riding on an elephant and the vertically designed openings carved in the walls with ropes you can visibly see in the final scene were such examples. But the worst example was in the ballet, the most risibly choreographed rendition I have ever seen, even worse than Bregenz's.
Musically, it is not much better actually. The conducting is not so bad, he does show what he wants clearly and it is authoritative but at the same time it fails to properly bring the score to life, when especially it should rouse(ie. the Triumphal scene) it didn't. I wouldn't go as far to say the orchestra was bad either, with the example of the fatigued and quite anaemic trumpets in the Triumphal scene there is some beautiful playing. The problem is that there are times where it is too distant and there are others where it overpowers the singers. I am not sure whether it was a balance issue or the case of bad sound quality(it's never sure whether it should favour the orchestra or singers and it's a little tinny too), I imagine it was one or the other or sometimes both. Either way, the balance was a major problem here. The chorus sing very well but are not very involved.
Excepting Sumegi and Morosow, the other performances don't cut it. Ramfis and the King are okay but don't distinguish themselves, not surprising seeing as Ramfis is the worst case of the characters being swamped in this production, if he didn't turn up every now and again you'd think he didn't exist it was that bad. I don't know who is the worst out of Kostadin Andreev and Cornelia Helfricht as they are as bad as each other and for similar reasons. Andreev's voice is always underpowered, never rising above or below the mezzo forte dynamic, and while he has the notes it is a voice that sounds like a sheep bleating and it is not pleasant at all. And I don't think I have seen a worse-acted Radames either, no nobility, command or heroism whatsoever, Andreev's acting consists only of narcissistic pouting and the occasional arm waving that makes dramatic scenes like the end of Act 3 seem silly. Helfricht's voice lacks freshness, consisting of forced chest voice and a squally high register. Her middle is her best attribute but the sound have been clearer and freer. As an actress she is just as bad as Andreev, except while he doesn't act Helfricht overacts and embarrassingly. Her gestures and facial expressions look as though they were lifted out of a silent film, and the strutting and throwing things around indicated not an imperial, powerful princess(and the most interesting character), but an arrogant, spoilt rich girl. That was too extreme I felt, remember this is Amneris we're talking about, not Verucca "I want it now!" Salt.
All in all, has about four or five good things but has too much bad to recommend it. 4/10 Bethany Cox
There are things that are good. The sets are the definition of grand and epic and they are very colourful and ornate, and I loved the horses and the elephants, they looked amazing and gave the feeling of being in Egypt. The camera work is wonderful as well, dynamic and unobtrusive and the intermission fireworks are filmed with an obvious sense of love. Two performances are good, Eszter Sumegi and Igor Morosow. Sumegi gives a very dignified and deeply felt performance as Aida(a very believable character here), more than what this production deserved to be quite frank, and apart from a somewhat tight vibrato her singing has the lyricism and power the role needs and done with intelligence. Morosow has a very powerful voice for Amonasro and lets rip in his big angry moment in the Act 3 duet between him and Aida, and he is an actor that is fatherly and firm, perhaps in his more forceful moments he could have let himself go a little bit more.
However, the costumes are cheap-looking and dull. They also don't fit with the setting, in colour, in look and in correlation to the settings(colourful and grand next to dull and cheap, not a good match). And the stage direction was far too busy and outlandish, and actually swamps the story and characters. The best scene was the scene between Aida and Amonasro in Act 3, on a bare stage and quite intimate in stage-directing, this was an intense and moving moment that was a welcome change from everything else, it also helps that the best singing-acting overall was in this scene. Amneris rushing across the stage like Brunnhilde, Radames' laborious riding on an elephant and the vertically designed openings carved in the walls with ropes you can visibly see in the final scene were such examples. But the worst example was in the ballet, the most risibly choreographed rendition I have ever seen, even worse than Bregenz's.
Musically, it is not much better actually. The conducting is not so bad, he does show what he wants clearly and it is authoritative but at the same time it fails to properly bring the score to life, when especially it should rouse(ie. the Triumphal scene) it didn't. I wouldn't go as far to say the orchestra was bad either, with the example of the fatigued and quite anaemic trumpets in the Triumphal scene there is some beautiful playing. The problem is that there are times where it is too distant and there are others where it overpowers the singers. I am not sure whether it was a balance issue or the case of bad sound quality(it's never sure whether it should favour the orchestra or singers and it's a little tinny too), I imagine it was one or the other or sometimes both. Either way, the balance was a major problem here. The chorus sing very well but are not very involved.
Excepting Sumegi and Morosow, the other performances don't cut it. Ramfis and the King are okay but don't distinguish themselves, not surprising seeing as Ramfis is the worst case of the characters being swamped in this production, if he didn't turn up every now and again you'd think he didn't exist it was that bad. I don't know who is the worst out of Kostadin Andreev and Cornelia Helfricht as they are as bad as each other and for similar reasons. Andreev's voice is always underpowered, never rising above or below the mezzo forte dynamic, and while he has the notes it is a voice that sounds like a sheep bleating and it is not pleasant at all. And I don't think I have seen a worse-acted Radames either, no nobility, command or heroism whatsoever, Andreev's acting consists only of narcissistic pouting and the occasional arm waving that makes dramatic scenes like the end of Act 3 seem silly. Helfricht's voice lacks freshness, consisting of forced chest voice and a squally high register. Her middle is her best attribute but the sound have been clearer and freer. As an actress she is just as bad as Andreev, except while he doesn't act Helfricht overacts and embarrassingly. Her gestures and facial expressions look as though they were lifted out of a silent film, and the strutting and throwing things around indicated not an imperial, powerful princess(and the most interesting character), but an arrogant, spoilt rich girl. That was too extreme I felt, remember this is Amneris we're talking about, not Verucca "I want it now!" Salt.
All in all, has about four or five good things but has too much bad to recommend it. 4/10 Bethany Cox
