Great art, great silliness: Aida at ENO
Aida
English National Opera
London Coliseum
Stalls G9, £20 (secret seat)
6 October 2017
ENO page
Opera, more than any other art form I think, has the capacity simultaneously to be both great art and extremely silly. Verdi's operas exemplify the trait, and when a production is able to tap that duality's inherent energy the results are deliriously entertaining.
Such is Phelim McDermott's new production for the ENO, or at least its first half. McDermott and his creative team in no way send up Aida or ever step outside its histrionic world: but the designs and approach mirror and amplify Verdi's tincta, from the simple moral crises made heroically intense through the glory of the operatic voice, to the full-out razzmatazz of the big chorus numbers, expressed through a handful of spectacular visual motifs. Verdi was out to entertain, and so is McDermott.
Essential to this entertainment scheme, its silliness and its art, is the quality of the voices in the lead roles. Latonia Moore as Aida and Gwyn Hughes Jones as Radamès are ideal: suitably anguished, hilariously loud. Hughes Jones had me quivering with glee from the off with a magnificent 'Celeste Aida' (or 'Hhhhhhhheavennly Aida'). Moore is not yet quite as refined around the edges but where it matters her voice is magnificent, blooming thrillingly in the intimacy of 'O patria mia' and triumphantly riding the waves of volume in the Act II finale.
Matthew Best is superb as the King of Egypt; Robert Winslade Anderson as Ramfis and Musa Ngqungwana as Amonasro are both good. Eleanor Dennis as the High Priestess is impressive in the production's finest, silliest set piece. Sadly Michelle DeYoung as Amneris was not up to the standard of Moore and Hughes Jones, failing to project across the orchestra and chewing her words. Keri-Lynn Wilson in the pit very ably keeps the whole shebang together; while her on-the-fast-side tempos are perhaps not definitive, they're an excellent fit for McDermott's clear taste for the extreme.
The production isn't perfect. The smooth transitions so impressive in the first half are replaced in the second by annoyingly lengthy gaps between scenes, and McDermott is more content with stand-and-deliver singing than he should be. But in all this is a brilliantly entertaining production with very high musical standards – such a shame to see so many empty seats.
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