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.
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