London has its dowdiest Aida in 50 years

London has its dowdiest Aida in 50 years

News

norman lebrecht

September 28, 2022

Alastair Macaulay reviews Covent Garden’s new Aida, exclusively for Slipped Disc:

by Alastair Macaulay

The Royal Opera’s new production of Verdi’s Aida is visually the least glamorous account of this opera I’ve seen in fifty years, but not the dullest. As directed by Robert Carsen, Verdi’s Egypt has become a modern military regime. Almost everyone – soldiers, slaves, even rebels – is dressed by Annemarie Woods in uniforms of grey or beige, amid brutalist urban architecture designed by Miriam Buether in matching tones.

In the Triumphal Scene, we honour the glorious dead, their coffins raised and born in procession. The dances become displays of athletic military training. The King gets the only uniforms with colour. For the Triumphal Scene, his daughter Amneris is allowed to power-dress in a red suit. Aida, being a slave, is the most completely grey-clad character of all – she gets to wear a grey mac over her grey maid’s uniform.

There are too many machine guns: every soldier (dozens) is given one. When Aida’s rebel father Amonasro turns up by the Nile (or wherever we are) with six henchmen, they, too, are bearing machine guns. At that scene’s climax, Amonasro, spotting Amneris, announces (according to the libretto) that killing her will be the climax of his plan – but, instead of massacring Egyptians, he then holds a knife to his own daughter’s throat. Some mistake here, surely? (You expect Amneris to encourage him to slit her rival’s throat.) I presume someone will tidy up this muddle. Otherwise the production works on its own terms, though I’m not sure the military are well advised to lock the traitor Radamès up in a cellar with what look like, to my inexpert eyes, a hundred nuclear warheads.

It’s a cold, completely watchable production, but not one that breathes inner life in the acting of its lead couple, Elena Stikhina’s Aida or Francesco Meli’s Radamès. Stikhina sings the taxing title role with apparent effortlessness, apart from a pinched high C in “O patria mia”; it’s astounding to hear the radiant bloom throughout her voice undiminished over four acts. But she doesn’t point words; and her Aida is a mousy, conventional character, without individuality. Meli looks the least relaxed character onstage; he sounds like a lyric tenor who is in the process of beefing up his voice for heroic roles of this calibre, with alternating strains of poetry and machismo that don’t quite cohere persuasively.

Elsewhere the production, which returns later this season with a different cast, has more oomph. Above all, from the prelude onward, the conducting of Antonio Pappano ideally reconciles this opera’s private and public voices. The orchestral lucidity is often breath-taking, with, even in this highly familiar score, many details making new impressions: the massive ascending staccati in the Consecration Scene, the subdued woodwind framing Aida’s anxious perturbation of spirit when alone with Amneris. He works particular wonders with the male chorus, whose sustained quiet singing in the Consecration and Trial Scenes becomes a riveting embodiment of the militia at prayer: wholly impersonal, rapt, focused.

For Covent Garden, the two big discoveries – both making their debuts here – are the Polish mezzo Agnieszka Rehlis (Amneris) and the American bass Soloman Howard (the high priest Ramfis). Rehlis, though without the power of a Fiorenza Cossotto or a stylish Italian accent, is glamorous, intense, and potent. Words matter to her; physically, she registers even when not singing. Howard is powerful of frame and voice, handsome, and capable of wonderful quiet: his solo beginning of the Consecration hymn (“Nume, custode e vindice”), both mellifluous and hushed, is the most sheerly gorgeous singing of the evening. As Amonasro, Ludovic Tézier, who made so strong an impression in Covent Garden’s Forza del destino in 2019, has presence and power.

Still, there’s a heartlessness about this nearly monochrome staging. When Aida is inspiring, it becomes one of the nineteenth century’s great dramas about liberty. When all forms of other liberty are blocked to the lead couple, they sing of leaving this world for the new radiance of eternity. If later casts can make that spiritual sublimity convincing, they will give this production the larger dimension it lacks.

photo: ROH/Tristram Kenton
 

Comments

  • Been Here Before says:

    Quite an accurate review. Been there on Sunday, the opening night and agree with the reviewer on most topics.

    The production works, but it still leaves something to be desired. An interesting experiment, perhaps, but I would definitely like to see more color, not just shades of grey. This is not Aida you will love and cherish.

    Pappano and the orchestra were first rate as usual. Meli was miscast and Stikhina all right. The two standouts were clearly Rehlis and Howard, as the reviewer points out. At times, it felt as if Amneris, not Aida, was the main character.

    All together a pleasurable evening, excellent music, but not something one will remember in ten years time.

    • Nik says:

      I was there last night and agree with you. Meli was definitely the weakest link. He sounded like he was just snatching for one note after another and hoping for the best, rather than forming anything resembling a vocal line. Despite receiving quite clearly the most muted applause of all the leads, he insisted on dragging out his solo bows to the nth degree. Someone should have a word with him about that.

      • Timothy Auger says:

        Yes, Meli was the weakest. Living dangerously with his top notes. And yes, he did milk the applause a bit. Personally I thought the production worked well, although my companion said he was fed up with operas translated into modern quasi-fascistic settings. But I did wonder how the unhappy couple could be entombed for ever in this underground chamber – were the warheads never going to be used, past their best-before date in true Communist style?

        Definitely worth seeing.

        • Nik says:

          I hate to be the one who makes “that” comment, but I will do it anyway. Yesterday I did a bit of Aida listening at home. Corelli, Leontyne Price (sadly not on the same recording). Non-stop goosebumps which I had none of during Wednesday’s performance. Really highlighted the mediocrity of Stikhina and, frankly, the total inadequacy of Meli. I realise that such voices don’t exist now (not sure why, but they don’t), but there must be a middle ground?

  • Una says:

    Looking forward to seeing and hearing it in Ilkley cinema. So rarely done in Britain because of costs, so I’ll take it as it comes. A review like this won’t put me off, but maye some homework about how to understand the production will be required. Either way the music will be glorious.

  • Rachelle says:

    Thanks for the critique which is useful as I hope to be there on Monday. I was privileged to see a wonderful performance at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 2007 I believe. No expense was spared for the scenery and costumes which were impressive!

  • Nick2 says:

    The ROH has not had much success with Aida. I attended the 3rd performance of the 1984 Ponelle production with Mehta and what should have been a stellar cast of Pavarotti, Ricciarelli and the House debut of the wonderful bass Paata Burchuladze. This had been loudly booed at the first performance, Pavarotti had cancelled the second, was extremely tentative at the 3rd and Ricciarelli was consistently flat throughout. Astonishingly there was no Grand March as it seems the cash ran out. I have rarely heard such a chorus of “Rubbish” and booing throughout the evening anywhere. This new production sponsored by a major Bank was scrapped immediately afterwards. What a total waste of money!

  • MOST READ TODAY: