BY KIRSTEN BOLTON
FOR ARTSPRING
On New Year’s Eve, the Metropolitan Opera unveiled its first new production of Verdi’s Aida in almost 40 years.
As one of the most epic works in opera’s classical canon, Aida’s Live in HD broadcast at ArtSpring on Saturday, Jan. 25 has already attracted the highest volume ticket sales since well before Covid, with good reason.
For his state-of-the-art take on Verdi’s monumental drama, director Michael Mayer embraces the work’s grand scale and opportunity for spectacle, filling the stage with towering ancient scenery of gilded tombs, lavish costumes and colours, and animated projections to bring ancient Egypt to life.
Caught in one of opera’s greatest love triangles, American soprano Angel Blue headlines as the captured Ethiopian princess torn between love and country. Polish tenor Piotr Beczała stars as Radamès, the valiant soldier she desires, and Romanian-Hungarian mezzo-soprano Judit Kutasi is the Egyptian princess who is Aida’s rival for his affections, all with a sinister priestly class pulling the strings.
Beloved Met music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium once again to conduct. As a Canadian, he often gives his signature shout-out to Canada as part of real-time backstage interviews during intermission. Watching behind-the-scenes coverage of set changes, production design and interviews with the stars is part of the added value of the Live in HD experience for audiences watching from outside New York.
Aida was the fulfillment of a long-time dream of Isma’il Pasha, Khedive of Egypt, who had spent years trying to convince Verdi to compose a work for the Khedivial Opera House, after it had opened with a performance of Rigoletto in 1869 to coincide with the completion of the Suez Canal.
It took the intervention of French archaeologist Auguste Mariette to propose the subject that ultimately captured the composer’s interest. Having discovered a number of significant tombs and established the famed Egyptian Museum, Mariette combined his knowledge of the ancient world with a bit of theatrical licence to fashion a story that contained all the hallmarks of a great operatic tragedy: warring kingdoms, bloodshed, a love triangle and treachery at the highest levels.
Verdi saw the potential for “a work of vast proportions,” and after enduring delays due to the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, the opera eventually premiered in Cairo on Christmas Eve 1871 — with Mariette himself supervising the scenery and costumes.
Mariette and Verdi’s vision of ancient Egypt is not without its fair share of anachronisms and inventions, but for director Mayer, these are all part of Aida’s charm. This is acknowledged in his framing of the opera with a team of 19th-century archaeologists who unearth a tomb not seen for millennia. As they sweep away the cobwebs and cast lantern light onto rows of crumbling hieroglyphs, the faded images and symbols begin to glow and leap from the walls. The room takes on colours of lapis lazuli and gold, and the story is set in motion.
Audiences can look forward to The Triumphal March, one of the most popular pieces of classical music in the world, as well as the intermission warm quiche, coffee and cookies in this Saturday opera tradition at ArtSpring.
Met Opera’s Live in HD series was launched in 2006 and has expanded to 66 countries, attracting millions of people around the world to sit down to experience the same live performance in real time, using up to 10 HD cameras to capture on-stage close-ups and back-stage interviews and activity.
Tickets are on sale at artspring.ca or the box office for $25 adult, $20 senior and $15 youth.