RSS
Home
Verdi's "Aida" broadcast live in HD from the Met on Saturday to theaters: Captain loves a slave
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Aida, the slave girl and captured princess in Verdi's love story, comes to local theaters on Saturday broadcast LIVE in high definition from the Metropolitan Opera House. Slide show below. For the full season of HD broadcasts, click here: Met HD LIVE broadcasts 2009/10.
Johan Botha of the Met's Aida will soon play the title role of Verdi's Otello at San Francisco Opera. SFO ends the fall season with Otello, opening with a matinee on Sunday, November 8 at 2:00. Botha is from South Africa. A video of Botha singing Der Meistersinger in 2008 is below.
Verdi sets the four hour epic of Aida amid palm trees, pyramids and a palace. The Egyptian captain played by Botha falls in love with a captured princess, an Ethopian slave-girl. Heartbreakingly and humbly, Aida sings to her rival in love and her mistress Princess Amneris, "You live in beauty, in regal splendor. All I have is love, more than my tears can show." Aida begs forgiveness, saying her mistress's rage is a moot point as Aida will be no threat when Aida is dead. The lovers stand up to king and country for each other.
No justification for love?
There's no explaining how the captain/slave love happened--it's just there. However the captain ends up with two princesses when he only loves one. We do see how he gets the princess in power; The king offers her hand as a reward for his loyalty. It's expedient, the people will approve. Nevertheless only one princess really loves the captain as the other is love/hate. He never offers a kind word to the princess in power.
If ten in the morning is too early for you on a Saturday, you can enjoy the encore later in the day on November 11th. Here is the link: Aida HD simulcast.
Note you may still catch the Tosca encores with Karita Mattila on October 28 and 29th.
To buy tickets: Met broadcast tickets.
Theaters around San Francisco.
Verdi's political drama distinguished from Wagner
The review of the Met's Aida by Susan Hall includes a mention of using real horses, two white stallions. She also discusses how Verdi was accused of imitating Wagner in Verdi as Verdi disposes of poetic correctness in favor of conveying drama and military tone with brass. Wagner does feature that real live horse too, Brunnhilde's noble and beloved Grane. Nobody has a monopoly on majestic horses though.
Aida – Giuseppe Verdi
October 24, 2009
US Encore: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (6:30 PM local time)
Canada Encore: November 21, 2009, 1 pm
Expected Running time: 3 hours, 56 minutes, 2 intermissions
Notes the Met: Set in ancient Egypt, Aida is both a heartbreaking love story and an epic drama full of spectacular crowd scenes. A cast of powerful voices and a grand production bring the story to life on the Met stage (and on the HD screen). Violeta Urmana stars in the title role of the enslaved Ethiopian princess, with Dolora Zajick as her rival. Johan Botha plays Radamès, commander of the Egyptian army, and Daniele Gatti conducts. Among the score’s highlights is the celebrated Triumphal March.
Conductor: Daniele Gatti; Production: Sonja Frisell; Violeta Urmana, Dolora Zajick, Johan Botha, Carlo Guelfi, Roberto Scandiuzzi, Stefan Kocán
More Verdian jealousy, coast to coast
Fans of Verdian jealousy also get to see Otello at San Francisco Opera House starting November 8 through December 2. However Otello bears Shakespearean roots whereas Aida actually is a product of royal patronage. The Egyptian king originally solicited from a living composer to mark the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. The Franco-Prussian War delayed the delivery of costumes and sets for Verdi so Aida actually premiered on Christmas Eve of 1871, two years later.
"Otello" cast change, seriously
San Francisco Opera issued a recent press release about a cast change of unrelated Bulgarian sopranos in the November production. Straight faced, the opera announces
ZVETELINA VASSILEVA TO REPLACE SVETLA VASSILEVA IN
SAN FRANCISCO OPERA’S UPCOMING PRODUCTION OF
GIUSEPPE VERDI’S OTELLO
Bulgarian soprano Zvetelina Vassileva will replace Svetla Vassileva as Desdemona in San Francisco Opera’s upcoming production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello. Svetla Vassileva has withdrawn from these performances due to personal family reasons. Zvetelina Vassileva performs alongside Johan Botha (Otello), Marco Vratogna (Iago), Beau Gibson (Cassio), Renée Tatum (Emilia), and Eric Halfvarson (Lodovico). Stephen Barlow directs this Sir Peter Hall/Lyric Opera of Chicago production conducted by San Francisco Opera Music Director Nicola Luisotti. Otello opens on November 8, 2009 with six subsequent performances running through December 2, 2009.
Zvetelina Vassileva made her U.S. opera debut at San Francisco Opera in 1994 as Leonora in Il Trovatore and returned in 1995 as Gorislava in Ruslan and Lyudmila and in 1998 as Drusilla in L'Incoronazione di Poppea. She has previously performed the role of Desdemona at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden and in her native Bulgaria at Sofia’s Bulgarian National Opera.
About Zvetlelina Vassileva
Bulgarian soprano Zvetelina Vassileva made her U.S. opera debut with San Francisco Opera in 1994 as Leonora in Il Trovatore; she returned to the Company in 1995 as Gorislava (Ruslan and Lyudmila) and in 1998 as Drusilla (L’Incoronazione di Poppea). Career highlights include Leonora and Musetta (La Bohème) at the Metropolitan Opera; Amelia (Un Ballo in Maschera) with the Canadian Opera Company and Greek National Opera; Marenka (The Bartered Bride) with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; Mimì (La Bohème) with Berlin’s Linden Opera; Tatyana (Eugene Onegin), Yaroslavna (Prince Igor), and the title role of Aida with Houston Grand Opera; Judith (Bluebeard’s Castle) at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels; and Nedda (Pagliacci) at Turin’s Teatro Regio, among many others. Winner of the 1992 International Tito Schipa Competition and 1993 Francesco Cilea Competition, Vassileva has performed a number of roles in her native Bulgaria at Sofia’s Bulgarian National Opera, including Leonora, Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus), Elisabetta (Don Carlo), Violetta (La Traviata), Micaëla (Carmen), and Desdemona, among others.
For more information go to www.SFOpera.com
Johan Botha, South African tenor, sings "Der Meistersinger" in 2008
Related Articles:
Comments
