I had seen a version of Aida before at ENO and then I had gone mostly for the Zandra Rhodes set designs and costumes, which turned out to be the best part of that show.
Despite those misgivings I forked out £51 for Upper Circle Centre A31. A pretty fine seat.
The monochrome poster suggested a very different performance this time, and it was. Not quite as visually striking as the poster suggests but then I've learned not to trust posters and it was still striking.
The tone was a mix of colonial and ancient which has been done before and which has worked before and which worked well again this time. The colonial costumes with their military motifs grounded the story in familiar territory and the ancient flourishes, particularly the hats, added the period authentic and another layer of grandeur.
This Aida was a production immersed in the spectacular with grand scenes, large choruses, many extras and some circus performers. It was Grand Opera delivered grandly.
Of course, as I always say, opera is all about the singing and this Aida was far far better than the last ENO production which confessed to being hit by illness. There was only one voice that caused me any issues at all and that was only for consistency of power, she could really belt the notes out when called upon to do so but was a little quiet at other times. That was one small weakness in a production with several soloists and, overall, the singing was superb.
Aida was a fine example of what ENO can do and I like what it does.
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments are welcome. Comments are moderated only to keep out the spammers and all valid comments are published, even those that I disagree with!