Doss’s Amonasro were among the noteworthy portrayals in the strongly cast secondary characters. Reinhard Hagen’s Ramfis, Ashraf Sewailam’s King and Mark S. In the final act, at least for a moment, you almost felt sorry for her. Jill Grove brought unusual dimension and humanity to a convincing portrayal of Amneris (Aida’s spiteful rival).
And she is as much a communicator as a singer. In the title role, Latonia Moore was Fraccaro’s equal, showing the same power but with considerably more warmth. But there’s no denying his sheer vocal power and impressive upper register.
Especially in the first act, he seemed to sing at only two dynamic levels (soft and loud) and it’s not an instrument with a great deal of warmth. But by the time the chorus filled the stage, and with the first statement of “Gloria ai Numi,” Callegari and the San Diego Symphony were locked in.Īs for that cast, Walter Fraccaro (as Radames) revealed a big, bright sound. He miscalculated in the opening of the first act, slowing down the opera’s signature tenor aria, “Celeste Aida,” to the point it almost stood still. What made this production particularly grand was a uniformly excellent cast and conductor Daniele Callegari’s canny treatment of the score.Ĭallegari, making a welcome debut with the company, is apparently a man who likes contrasts, so he tends to push the faster sections (like the third act duet between Aida and her father, Amonasro), and then will take a little extra off the slower scene that follows. Of course you already knew that from Rhodes' playful sets, with their vivid colors (lots of gold) and motifs based on hieroglyphs.īut as somebody once said (and some people think it was Richard Rodgers), nobody leaves the theater humming the scenery. It’s clear from the first scene, when a procession of male, bare-chested attendants (or were they priests?) wearing wide, shiny skirts passes by, that this wasn’t going to be your standard, business-class trip to Egypt “during the time of the Pharaohs” (in Verdi’s words).
But Zandra Rhodes explosively colorful sets and costumes, already seen at the Houston Grand Opera, the English National Opera and the San Francisco Opera, take it a step beyond grand. Verdi’s beloved masterpiece is the very definition of grand opera with its epic scale and massive chorus. The Dowager would have approved of the San Diego Opera’s over-the-top production of “Aida” that opened Saturday at the Civic Theatre.
There’s a moment in PBS’ “Downton Abbey” where the Dowager Countess of Grantham, played by the redoubtable Maggie Smith, proclaims as the final touches are being put on a particularly elaborate dinner: “Nothing succeeds like excess.” Where: San Diego Opera at San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., downtown Tickets: $45-$275
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