Aida

Please forgive any infelicities or outright stupidity in what follows. I am a victim of my own bad planning. Having determined to write everything I wanted to write about Aida before the opening night of Manon Lescaut, I now find myself accordingly obliged to blog about it at a time when a sensible person would be asleep. I'll try and be briefish, but you know me: that never really works. 

I get the sense that many people have welcomed Graeme Murphy's production as a work of triumphant genius. So when I say that I don't entirely agree with that sentiment, I acknowledge at the same time that this might have as much to do with me as with him. I just know that when I write what I'm about to write, somebody will either shout at me or want to shout at me that I am missing the point. However, here it is. In the end, I did actually think this show was pretty fabulous, but the important words there are in the end. For me, the first two acts fell — no pun intended — a little flat. Murphy has this idea of 3D people in a 2D world — meaning top-of-the-line cardboard cutouts — which definitely has its moments of striking appeal. But for me it also has moments, especially at the beginning, of looking like an old fashioned Aida with cardboard sets; that is, the stylisation doesn't always (particularly at close range) look deliberate. I understand that it is deliberate, but the contrast isn't always as vividly made as it might be. That quite possibly has something to do with the performers as well: it's a while before they really take ownership of the space and let their own performances blossom, and in the meantime they risk being as two-dimensional as the sets. 

But as I've written already, whatever my reservations about the first half, they were magically obliterated by the fantastic second half, in which everything just came together brilliantly. Sets, costumes, lighting, acting, singing, orchestral playing — you name it, it was better. And it wasn't just a case of individual improvements: all the artistic forces at play seemed to feed off each other's energy so that the show as a whole became its own vibrant identity and took flight. For all the spectacle of the earlier acts, nothing in this show will remain as strong in my memory as the clear, simple and genius way Murphy staged the final act. Coupled with the heightened musical intensity and singers whose voices seemed to be gaining richness and power with every phrase, it was simply extraordinary. I'm getting worked up again now just thinking about it, a week later.

However, the point of praise I'm really rushing towards is the fantastic Tamara Wilson. Even the bitterest of last year's complainers could surely raise no objections to this import. She was outstanding. She's only young (young enough that her name still seems to have "rising star" permanently attached to it) but that is some voice, and she knows how to use it. This is her first ever Aida, and I think she said in an interview somewhere that she hadn't expected to sing the role so early in her career. Yet here she is doing it, and what I love is that she embraces that youthfulness. She doesn't try and blast the hell out of it or march about the place Acting Like A Star. Her Aida is sweet and gentle while still tackling the big moments with real power, so that she fills that theatre not with sheer volume but with a sound so perfectly spun and so controlled that it floats and swirls into the ether. If this is what her début sounds like, then "rising star" is right: she's definitely somebody special. 

Dongwon Shin's success isn't as immediate but ultimately it's hardly less impressive. His "Celeste Aida" was excellent but not what I'd call exceptional. It was only in those final two acts that his voice seemed really to open up, and once it had, the sounds that man was making were pretty amazing. Fabulous Italianate tenors are all too rare in our Opera Theatre, alas, so Shin is one we must keep in our grasp. Maybe not the subtlest actor but far from dull, and for that kind of ringing, secure tone I'd forgive far worse sins; besides, there's plenty of life and colour in the voice, and that's what really counts. Like the show itself, Milijana Nikolic takes until Act Three to come suddenly and wonderfully into her own. Of course she looks amazing from the outset, exotic and Cleopatra-esque, but to begin with her voice isn't quite as electrifying or as gorgeous as she is. Once Amneris gets a chance to make a scene, however, everything begins to change, and when she gets to her big solo scene — you could probably even call it a mad scene — she's all aflame, with voice to match, and you start to realise why Grace Bumbry (reportedly) told Leontyne Price that the opera should really be titled Amneris. 

My hat is off to Michael Lewis as well. I'd sort of forgotten he was in it, until Amonasro arrived and I had the sudden joy of a real live Verdi baritone. Lewis is in his element in this role, marrying impeccable Verdi style to a firm, flexible and suitably authoritative voice. Even if my first half reservations had continued to the end, Michael Lewis's performance (along with Tamara's) would still have remained with me as an unalloyed pleasure. Jud Arthur had a couple of minor tangles with a tricky throat but otherwise was in his usual sononorous form as Ramfis, and it was great to see David Parkin making his official company début as The King. I wasn't massively impressed with Amy Wilkinson's Priestess, although it's hard to draw too many conclusions from such a brief and distant appearane; she sang quite nicely but there wasn't much celestial about her. 

I've already in my earlier post expressed my abject love for the Opera Australia chorus. There's not much I can add to that. Hearing them in an opera like this, so grand and sweeping and with such big hits for them to sing, is just another reminder of what a wonderful sound they make. I won't declare myself quite so besotted with Sir Richard Armstrong but I was happy at least that his Aida wasn't as decibel-driven as his Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (where loud worked) and his leadership of the Radiance concert (where loud ruined things). Anyway, he drew a reasonably robust and at times quite lyrical performance from the AOBO. There did seem to be some grappling over tempi happening at the beginning but it sorted itself out — along with everything else — and in those last two acts the orchestra's playing really began to glow. 

I'm still puzzling over this Aida a bit. If you'd told me at the first or second interval how I'd feel by the end, I would not have believed you, and yet it happened. I don't recall reacting to a show like this before, dismissing one half only to fall head over heels for the other. And now what I'd like to see is an incarnation of this Aida in which it's all at the level of the second half. For all I know that might happen within this (rather long) season. Maybe it even happened on opening night and I was just too slow on the uptake. These — and Tamara Wilson! — are all good reasons for paying a second visit, and that's precisely what I plan to do.

Comments

[Margaret]

This production had its first outing last year for WA Opera, with Aivale Cole who, along with the production, had the local audience very excited. I missed it, sadly (long story), and had to put up with everyone telling me about it.