Aida keeps going and going with performances right through the start of December. I admired the over-the-top look, but it was mind-boggling how it was tied to a show so short on excitement or originality. Then there are the bare-chested supernumeraries in the giant gold lamé hoop skirts. She was strong and mostly in sync with the orchestra, but I really didn’t find her all that convincing. Micaela Carosi was the Aida and had by far lost the costume lottery for the evening – mid-riff, real or implied, is a delicate thing on the opera stage. He was stable enough throughout his range and appeared heroic. Marcello Girordani sang Radames with good energy and some urgency. Given that she hadn’t been burdened with acting direction, it gave her wide berth to work her vocal magic au naturel. Dolora Zajick was the vocal star of the show delivering her patented Amneris. Conductor Nicola Luisotti avoids the orchestra descending into self-parody and things moved along nicely. On the bright side, I’ve heard far worse sounding Aidas. And given that San Francisco Opera is putting on a mammoth 12 performances, you should have plenty of chance to go. don giovanni, june 4-july 2, 2022: the summer season starts with part 3 of the company’s multi-year mozart-da ponte trilogy, featuring international conductor bertrand de billy in his s.f. If that is your kind of thing, then this Technicolor travesty may be the opera you’re looking for. The only moment of life in the entire dead three hours was a turquoise, life-sized elephant puppet Radames arrives on in Act II that elicited applause from the audience. The interaction between principals is more often than not stiff and just as likely to happen with either involved party standing at the opposite end of the stage facing the audience. But I for one would not have taken that away from this particular performance. Now reportedly the idea behind the production is to refocus attention on the central love triangle. Or to put it another way, this Aida makes doing nothing look easy. One might surmise from this that all it takes to direct an opera is to dress up some singers, line them up at the foot of the stage, and let them have at it. And in another way, this Aida directed by Jo Davies with neon-colored production design from Zandra Rhodes, made me question my career choice.
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