Stylish Nile
OPERA EDWARD BOYLE
The new production of Aida at Covent Garden is notable, first of all, for the very fine sets by Nicholas Georgiadis which are lovely to look at, rich, detailed, never fussy, and for the most part admirably designed as a background to this inexhaustible opera with its wealth of melodic richness, magical orchestration and sustained imaginative power. I liked especially the sombre interior of the Scene of the Consecration, and the skilful handling of the last Act's Finale, with the fatal pietra sealing Radames's fate before our eyes.
Only the set for the Triumph Scene seemed to me unsuccessful; the stage looked cluttered, there was no dimension of space, while the grandeur of the occasion was seriously dimin- ished by the grouping of the main characters so near the front of the stage. In fact this scene was the one serious disappointment in a mostly memorable evening. John Potter's production was unconvincing at this point, especially the ineffective and seemingly half-hearted cheers which punctuated the opening bars of the famous march (they suggested not so much a triumph as the belated arrival of a not very popular public figure). The chorus hardly sounded as though they felt convinced, in Verdi's own words, that 'God is henceforward on our side.' One reason may have been that Mr Edward Downes, who elsewhere conducted most capably, came down rather heavily on the first beat of each bar at the start of 'Gloria all' Egitto,' whereas Verdi specifically asks for accents not on the first but on the third and fourth beats of alternate bars; the difference in giving a 'lift' to the music and getting the trium- phal chorus off the ground, is immeasurable. -
However the Third Act—the Nile Scene— went well and it is, after all, by reference to this marvellous scene, more than to any other, that any performance of Aida stands or falls. Grace Bumbry, as Amneris, sang her short .but lovely lines `Si; io preghero' to perfection. Throughout the first half of the opera, and especially in her Second Act duet with Aida, her voice sounded gloriously firm and rich—as good a mezzo performance, indeed, as one could hope to hear. (And what an advantage to have an alluring Amneris who was really credible as Pharaoh's daughter.) Predictably, she was less happy in the great dramatic Scene of the Judg- ment—she rather missed the full force of 'Jo stessa . . . Lo gettai!'—but her pianissimo low D flat blended beautifully with the high strings in the closing bars of the opera.
Gwyneth Jones, singing Aida for the first time, was handicapped by a disastrous make-up, and her first great aria showed a tendency for both her pitch and her tone to deteriorate under pressure; 'Numi, pieta' was, unfortunately, quite spoiled. Later on, especially in the Nile Scene, she did considerably better; '0 patria mia' went well, especially the soft high C at `no mai piu,' and one's overall impression was of a potentially fine performance rendered less enjoyable than it might have been by what appeared to be defects of technique.
Jon Vickers is an experienced Radames, and I thought his performance the best I had ever
seen- him give at Covent Garden. His 'Celeste Aida' was rather unusual, soft and meditative, very much in what teachers would have called the optative mood—far truer, in fact, to the composer's indications than the 'heroic' delivery to which we are all too accustomed. In the Nile Scene he really did sing `Si fuggiam"with im- passioned resolution' as the score directs, while his incredulous horror at `Tu! Amonasrol ' was the most effective moment, dramatically, in the entire performance. One great merit of Vickers is his stamina; within the range of tonal colour that he commands, his voice sounds as fresh at the end of a performance as at the beginning.
John Shaw, though the quality of his tone sounded sometimes rather pinched, was a dramatically convincing Amonasro. I wasn't quite satisfied with his 'Ma tu, Re' in the Triumph Scene (it wants to be very soft, legato, and also swift), but he was much more effective in his great duet with Aida, and rose to the full stature of his noble climax 'Pensa che un popolo.' The usually reliable Joseph Rouleau hardly sounded at his best as Ramphis, but this may have been partly because he was some- times badly positioned. The opening strain of 'Su! del Nib' may sound to some ears unduly blatant, but the modulating second strain, sung in turn by Ramphis and Amneris, is truly noble and needs to be heard clearly.
Despite the ingenuity of the scene changes in the First, Second and Fourth Acts, made with- out a dropped curtain, this was a long perfor- mance extending well over four hours. But the beauty and poignancy of '0 terra addio' made a memorable conclusion to an evening in which. as the great work unfolded, there seemed in- creasingly more cause for gratitude.
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