Aida, by Verdi, Chisinau National Opera, Ipswich RegentGREAT opera, professionally performed – now there's something you don't see every day in Suffolk.

Aida, by Verdi, Chisinau National Opera, Ipswich Regent

GREAT opera, professionally performed – now there's something you don't see every day in Suffolk. So why can't Ipswich raise a full house when Opera International brings Verdi's masterpiece to town?

A theatre barely two-thirds full is a pretty poor show. Maybe word had gone round that this Aida was a pretty poor show too.

The music, of course, is wonderful and the orchestra spot-on as always. The chorus, too, is impressive.

But the staging is flat, static, uninspired, and the acting not so much poorly directed as un-directed.

Teimuraz Gugushvili as the hero Radames has an adequate voice but no stage presence. Why two powerful women should fall for such a lifeless clod is incomprehensible.

The princess Amneris just about deserves him. The other, Natalia Margarit's Aida, deserves much better.

She alone puts the audience under a spell with the beauty, power and control of her singing. Her stunning individual performance belongs in a far better production than this.

Let's hope tonight's Norma comes closer to the high standard we have come to expect of this usually excellent company.