Opera Impressions

FLASH: Aida Dies At The End Of Opera

After the equivocal ending of the recent performance of Tosca at the Met where Tosca may or may not have thrown herself off of a tower, I must report from the recent Met performance of Aida, that Aida dies at the end of the opera. Or, at least she was last seen singing with her lover Radames while sealed inside a tomb. And, Amneris, the daughter of the King of Egypt, was last seen still articulating her ambivalence about having turned in Radames in response to her unrequited love for him.

Aida in Verona, August 2009

Guest post by Glyn Cassorla.

Verona is a beautiful and reserved town. With more than six thousand people attending last night's opera performance of Aida in the arena, one could easily expect noise and chaos. Maybe because it was an opera crowd and maybe because it was in Europe, everything went smoothly and professionally.

Unlike the Metropolitan Opera, the stage itself was at least one third of the seating area and that almost gave one the feeling of being part of the action. The singers as well as the other actors were working on a large canvas with the Egyptian soldiers arranged along the top of the arena itself and carrying torches which created a beautiful effect against the sky. While they didn't bring elephants out as people said they might, there were horses that rode around. Again, because of the size of the stage area, the props were massive Sphinx like structures, huge obelisks and arches. I saw them outside of the arena the next day and they were indeed massive.

As far as the sound was concerned, well....one should probably spring for the seats closer to the stage. Although the sound carried to the outer reaches of the arena, its' clarity often was dissipated by the size of the arena, making the full range of the voices at times muffled, notes lost literally in space.  Despite this drawback, being there in the ancient arena with a huge audience late into the night, was an experience that one doesn't have often in life...I was thrilled that I was able to experience it.