ROH Aida

[JennyTaylor]

As a total ignoramus of opera, but always keen to learn, I took advantage of my Friends membership and went to a rehearsal of Tosca before Christmas. I loved it. Yesterday I took the plunge again and went to the rehearsal of Aida.  I know the very famous music excerpts of course having actually played these in my junior school orchestra many moons ago, but no idea of anything else except a few visions of pyramids. 

 

Thank goodness for subtitles, otherwise I wouldn't have had a clue, but I was taken aback to find the opera set in what appeared to be the military regime in North Korea.  So, for those who complained about the costumes for Cinderella, just take a look at these!  Grey, khaki, grey, dark green, dirty brown and even more grey.  Poor Aida (Angel Blue) spent the entire performance looking like a cross between a cleaner and a factory worker. It didn't work for me.  I gradually got used to the sets but I didn't like them. I was even more confused in that the male hero was actually played by a South Korean.  Coincidence or not?/ No idea. He was excellent BTW. 

 

By the final scene, I'd "got" the scene setting which was certainly trying to make a serious point about war and we were left with an empty "tomb" of nuclear weapons as the final scene. Very powerful.

 

As for the singing and the music, it was marvellous.  The power of a full opera chorus is spine tingling and something I didn't see in Tosca. The reactions of the audience at the end told me that the principals weren't bad either. I feel privileged to have seen world class opera singers in such a setting. I was sorry that their costumes didn't add to the drama from my perspective: it was all so incredibly drab. 

 

I found the performance had an effect on me for the rest of the day. I won't be booking for any real performances, but will certainly sampling more rehearsals.  I downloaded the music last night to listen to it all over again. 

 

 

 

  

[Mary]

7 minutes ago, JennyTaylor said:

it was all so incredibly drab. 

standard opera experience these days, alas!!

[Dawnstar]

34 minutes ago, JennyTaylor said:

I was even more confused in that the male hero was actually played by a South Korean.  Coincidence or not?/ No idea. He was excellent BTW.

 

I think that's a coincidence because the original casting had Italian tenor Francesco Meli singing all performances before it changed to Meli only singing the second part of the run. SeokJong Baek seems to be the ROH's go-to tenor substitue at the moment: I saw him subbing in Cavalleria Rusticana at the end of last season & he'd already subbed in Samson & Delila a couple of months earlier. (Next season he's due to do Pinkerton opposite Hrachuhi Bassenz as Madame Butterfly, which is ethnically interesting!)

[Scheherezade]

7 hours ago, JennyTaylor said:

I was taken aback to find the opera set in what appeared to be the military regime in North Korea.  So, for those who complained about the costumes for Cinderella, just take a look at these!  Grey, khaki, grey, dark green, dirty brown and even more grey...

... it was all so incredibly drab. 

  

 

Yep. And I can't bear the trend in current opera productions for grey, grey and anything that could pass for grey either, Jenny. There was, however, a red carpet that cut through the all-pervading greige to welcome the conquering hero home but in the only flash of colour in the entire production Amneris didn't seem to have got the memo that you really shouldn't wear red when you're on a red carpet.

 

I also agree, by the way, with your comment about the power of the production, but wouldn't it be nice to have something that was pleasing to the eye too.

 

6 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

 

SeokJong Baek seems to be the ROH's go-to tenor substitue at the moment: I saw him subbing in Cavalleria Rusticana at the end of last season & he'd already subbed in Samson & Delila a couple of months earlier. 

 

And yes again. I've seen him in these too, Dawnstar, but I have to say he's been exceptionally good in all of them.

 

[Scheherezade]

Apropos of the trend for visually unedifying productions, I remember being asked during the interval of the appalling 2010 ENO Don Giovanni in which I was perched right at the side up in the balcony whether I would like to swap seats with a man sitting right in the centre as he wanted to listen to the rest of the opera but couldn't bear to watch it any longer.

[Lizbie1]

13 hours ago, JennyTaylor said:

As a total ignoramus of opera, but always keen to learn, I took advantage of my Friends membership and went to a rehearsal of Tosca before Christmas. I loved it. Yesterday I took the plunge again and went to the rehearsal of Aida.  I know the very famous music excerpts of course having actually played these in my junior school orchestra many moons ago, but no idea of anything else except a few visions of pyramids. 

 

Thank goodness for subtitles, otherwise I wouldn't have had a clue, but I was taken aback to find the opera set in what appeared to be the military regime in North Korea.  So, for those who complained about the costumes for Cinderella, just take a look at these!  Grey, khaki, grey, dark green, dirty brown and even more grey.  Poor Aida (Angel Blue) spent the entire performance looking like a cross between a cleaner and a factory worker. It didn't work for me.  I gradually got used to the sets but I didn't like them. I was even more confused in that the male hero was actually played by a South Korean.  Coincidence or not?/ No idea. He was excellent BTW. 

 

By the final scene, I'd "got" the scene setting which was certainly trying to make a serious point about war and we were left with an empty "tomb" of nuclear weapons as the final scene. Very powerful.

 

As for the singing and the music, it was marvellous.  The power of a full opera chorus is spine tingling and something I didn't see in Tosca. The reactions of the audience at the end told me that the principals weren't bad either. I feel privileged to have seen world class opera singers in such a setting. I was sorry that their costumes didn't add to the drama from my perspective: it was all so incredibly drab. 

 

I found the performance had an effect on me for the rest of the day. I won't be booking for any real performances, but will certainly sampling more rehearsals.  I downloaded the music last night to listen to it all over again. 

 

 

 

  

 

Thank you for this - it told me more than the average newspaper review!

[CCL]

Thanks Jenny, you have definitely removed any lingering doubts I may have had about seeing this production! Glad you enjoyed the singing, at least.

[Dawnstar]

Was this tweet a veiled way of saying "we haven't sold enough Aida tickets & need to shift some fast"? If so then it's evidently worked as the first 2 performances are now showing as sold out while every performance for the rest of the run is 100+ tickets available.

 

 

[alison]

Guess so - certainly sounds like it.  The ROH must hate these extended bank holiday weekends.