Tag Archives: Aida
Aida in HD 2018
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 6th October 2018Aida was performed today by the Met for the 1166th time. This broadcast was HD telecast number three for Verdi’s Egyptian extravaganza. The hook for this run of the perennial was Anna Netrebko in the title role. There’s nothing new anyone can say about this opera so let’s get right to the show. Netrebko is…
› Read the full entry
Celeste Aida
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 21st May 2018Verdi’s first act aria from his Egyptian opera, ‘Celeste Aida’, is the last Italian tenor aria in the style so often used by the master and his predecessors – recitative followed by a formal aria. Verdi himself abandoned the format in his last two operas, Otello and Falstaff, which followed Aida. Puccini’s tenor arias are…
› Read the full entry
Tutto Verdi: Aida
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th April 2018When Verdi composed Aida he was well past the point where he had discovered, as Benjamin Britten remarked, the secret of perfection. If this opera does not plumb the emotional and psychological depths of its immediate predecessor, Don Carlo, it is a work of both grandeur and intimacy that comes from an operatic world inhabited…
› Read the full entry
Finale 12 & 12A: Aida Acts 2 & 4
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th February 2017This article will cover two finales, those to the second and fourth acts of Verdi’s Aida. Verdi’s Egyptian opera dates to the time when Benjamin Britten said Verdi had discovered the secret of perfection. The finale to the second scene of act 2, the triumphal scene, is a god-like demonstration of how to handle large forces. A…
› Read the full entry
Aida – Judgement Scene
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 13th June 2014The first scene of Act 4 of Verdi’s Aida, the Judgement Scene, is one of the Italian master’s supreme dramatic constructions. The entire 20 minute scene consists of dramatic exposition. There are no arias or traditional ensemble pieces. There’s not even a melody typical of what one expects in an Italian opera. But every note…
› Read the full entry
Aida in HD – 2012
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 15th December 2012The Met’s HD series presented Aida for the second time on Saturday December 15, 2012. The same production with a different cast was telecast on October 24, 2009. This go around was notable for the first appearance of the Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska on a Met broadcast. Ms Monastyrska made her debut as Aida last month. She has…
› Read the full entry
Aida in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 24th October 2009Verdi’s love triangle extravaganza was broadcast today (Oct 24, 2009) live throughout the known world in HD. This performance was one of the series most successful. The singing and orchestral playing were responsible for the emotional energy that flowed from the 1109th performance by the Met of an opera which everyone knows, but which requires great…
› Read the full entry
