Giuseppe Verdi: Aida
Arena di Verona, 1992
Aida - Maria Chiara
Amneris - Dolora Zajick
Radames - Kristjan Johannsson
Amonasro - Juan Pons
Ramfis - Nicola Ghiuselev
Il Re - Carlo Striuli
Sacerdotessa - Anna Schiatti
Un messaggero - Angelo Casertano
Orchestra e Coro dell’Arena di Verona
Nello Santi, conductor
Stage Director: Gianfranco de Bosio
NTSC
Sound Formats: PCM-STEREO, DD 5.1
Picture Format: 4:3
Subtitles: GB, D, F, I, E
Region Code: 0
Running Time: 146min
Recorded at the world-famous Arena di Verona, this opulent production of Verdi’s popular opera Aida was brought to life in a classic staging by Gianfranco De Bosio and conducted by Nello Santi, one of the greatest living representatives of the Italian singer-conductor tradition, who led a cast of exceptional singers, all well rooted in the Italian tradition.
The dramatic role of Aida was central to Maria Chiara’s repertoire, and she regularly appeared at the arena as Verdi’s heroine throughout the 1980s, and again in 1992, when this production was filmed. Her intense, introverted interpretation of the role is complemented by Icelandic tenor Kristjan Johannsson’s Radames. The other roles are filled by equally strong singers: American mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick has made a speciality of Verdi’s troubled rich-girl Amneris, while Juan Pons is heard at the peak of his powers in his reading of Amonasro. The opera is staged in front of the imposing, ancient Roman backdrop of the Arena di Verona and the sets, based on the original designs by influential Veronese architect and painter Ettore Fagiuoli (1884-1961), are similarly impressive.
But, if a place can also be a protagonist, it is surely the Roman arena, with its massed ranks of thousands of spectators, that gives this Aida its special character, from the initial hushed notes of Aida’s personal theme to the final sound of violins rising into the night sky. Aida was the first opera ever staged in the Arena - in 1913 on the occasion of the centenary of Giuseppe Verdi’s birth - and remains the most frequently performed work on the theatre’s programme, retaining unsurpassed popularity with the international audiences that flock to the Arena di Verona.
The shared associations of antiquity, ceremony, and of vast, overwhelming spaces have bound Verdi’s grand Egyptian opera and the Arena together as inseparable companions for almost a century. The original 1913 staging proved a seminal production: Framing the performance space with two tall Egyptian obelisks on either side, Fagiuoli placed two sphinxes downstage, and used a moveable set of columns to create the different scenes. The costumes were faithful to the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette’s guidelines. The adaptation of the original stage design - as seen on this DVD - was developed for a production by the Italian theatre and film director Gianfranco de Bosio in the early eighties and was presented in Verona for 13 seasons leading up to 1998, thus becoming the most frequently revived Aida staging so far.
The ancient Egyptian setting of Aida makes it particularly well-suited for an amphitheatre: an inflexible priestly cult dominates the characters and seals their fates and an entire scene is devoted to the arcane ceremony of Radames’ investiture at the head of the Egyptian army. Both elements are perfec for an outdoor stage, where the doomed lovers are dwarfed by their surroundings and the sheer splendour of the triumphant Egyptian army and the atmosphere of a night on the banks of the Nile can be conjured up far more vividly than on a theatre stage.
The vastness of the arena, allows for a vision that is almost cinematic, thus making the work ideal for a recording on DVD. Masterfully captured by Italian television with state of the art technology, this opera classic proves to be a feast for the eyes and the ears of the home viewer.
( TDK )
