No question. If you are only going to see one opera – or one performance -- at the Cairo Opera House, Aida should be at the top of your list.
One of Giuseppe Verdi’s last operas, Aida premiered in Egypt, at the old Cairo Opera House in 1871 (which sadly burned down exactly 100 years later in 1971). Aida took the opera world by storm, and still remains one of the top 20 performed operas worldwide (number 16, to be precise).
Some of the Cairo Opera Orchestra productions are a bit lacklustre – their La Boheme last December was a bit pathetic – and so I was bit reluctant to see Aida.
But, Cairo pulls out all the stops with Aida, with a lavish set and costumes of which any opera company in the world would be proud. Perhaps M Haggag and his colleagues in costume design have their pick of the treasures from the Egyptian Museum right across the bridge from the Opera House.
The palaces, the temples, the tombs, the triumphal march in Act 2 are all stunning. Indeed, in an evening with Aida you get a magnificent “sound and light” display of ancient Egypt, but with beautifully lyric music and song, and a gripping story of love and conquest.
Don’t expect singing like at La Scala or the Met, but nonetheless -- except for a weak Radames the evening I went -- Cairo does a more than credible job, with standouts Iman Moustafa as Aida, and the Serbian Dragana del Monaco as princess Amneris, whom the slave-girl Aida serves.
Cairo Live Events will keep you posted on the timing of next year’s production of Aida
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I'd like to add the scenery and costiums were amazing. There is the performance you must see, especially in Egypt. I wish they don't perform it at Giza Piramids any more.
ReplyDeletePS. I can't understand wy after so huge effort to prepare it, the Aida Opera is performed only for two weeks a year.