Verdi: Aida

The Essential Opera Collection is an exciting new mid-price series that brings together popular operas and classic productions in simple stylish packaging. The ten launch titles represent the leading opera houses of the world, including The Royal Opera House, Teatro Real, Paris Opera, Glyndebourne and The Netherlands Opera.

This TV give to us some advantages, like this :
1. Another Aida?
Amazon.com already includes ten complete DVD versions of Aida. My favorite is the one from the Metropolitan Opera (New York) with Aprile Millo and Placido Domingo. This latest arrival comes from Barcelona (two discs; 186 minutes; recorded live in the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, 21-24 July, 2003). In addition to the many virtues found by the previous reviewer (J. Scott Morrison, July 13, 2004), I would summarize my overall impression as: this is a magnificent performance! It has been recorded with superb sound. The orchestra, the chorus, the rhythm adopted by the conductor and, particularly, the restored trompe-l'oeil sets from the Catalonian painter, Josep Mestres Cabanes, make you forgive and forget the limitations of this new version of Aida. In some of the scenes (particularly in the last two acts), you are able to achieve such a level of immersion in the work that you forget some of the limitations of the two principal singers (Daniela Dessi and Fabio Armilato). Elisabetta...

2. Another Aida?
Amazon.com already includes ten complete DVD versions of Aida. My favorite is the one from the Metropolitan Opera (New York) with Aprile Millo and Placido Domingo. This latest arrival comes from Barcelona (two discs; 186 minutes; recorded live in the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, 21-24 July, 2003). In addition to the many virtues found by the previous reviewer (J. Scott Morrison, July 13, 2004), I would summarize my overall impression as: this is a magnificent performance! It has been recorded with superb sound. The orchestra, the chorus, the rhythm adopted by the conductor and, particularly, the restored trompe-l'oeil sets from the Catalonian painter, Josep Mestres Cabanes, make you forgive and forget the limitations of this new version of Aida. In some of the scenes (particularly in the last two acts), you are able to achieve such a level of immersion in the work that you forget some of the limitations of the two principal singers (Daniela Dessi and Fabio Armilato). Elisabetta...

Need more appointment... ?
Daniela Dessi and 60 year-old restored sets make this Aida special
The first time I saw Aida, it was all spectacle. By the third viewing, it had become an intimate tale, so familiar to us all: a tragic love triangle (and an interracial one at that). On fourth viewing, I fell in love with all of it - the spectacle of court and war, the dances, Verdi's use of the orchestra, the heartbreakingly beautiful pieces he wrote for Aida, the stunning (as in, "it stuns me") ending. It amazes me how Verdi can move seamlessly from spectacle (e.g. the triumphal march) to the most intimate of songs ("Numi, pieta," "O patria mia"). And, uncharacteristically, Verdi gets downright sensuous in Act II, Scene 1 where Amneris is dressed and pampered by her ladies and her slaves. The final scene is nothing short of brilliant: Verdi ends this bigger-than-life opera not with the brass of the orchestra blasting away but with the most intimate of scenes, accompanied by strings alone. Yes, the lovers die, but it's Verdi's brilliant overlay of their death duet with Amneris'...
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