Met's LIVE HD broadcast of Verdi's "Aida" enlivened by Renee Fleming's backstage interviews

October 26, 11:01 AMSF Opera ExaminerCindy Warner

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South African tenor Johan Botha as the lovesick captain torn between king,country and the captive

Marty Sohl

The most fun thing about the live HD broadcast from the Met would be soprano Renee Fleming's backstage interviews. You never know who Fleming will present and the San Francisco audience giggled their way through her efforts.  Nobody laughed when the soprano tripped backstage live. 

Video of Fleming's rehearsal for Der Rosenkavalier below, which will be simulcast in January.  Slideshow also below.

Here's a link to the slideshow of this must-see if ostentatious extravaganza:  Aida HD LIVE.

Let me just say while it is bad form in general to brag about one's wealth when so many are starving and have lost everything including their own country while they are still in it . . . that for a captain to fall in love with a captive or slave and to give his own life in compassion, that is very cool.  Compassion is what makes a fine leader, being of the people, for the people.  That's why I love the gentleman farmer Verdi, for his humanity and clear sensibility amid conflicting loyalties.

Incidentally have ya'll seen the new book by Captain Shelly Shellenberger?  He respects life so much because he could not save his own father (suicide).  His mother was a teacher and he says learn from others because if you learn on your own you may not survive.

Moving on to Aida . . .

The Renee Fleming show

Fleming showed range and a Miss America chutzpa, a pretty and vivacious fifty year old (I'm fifty too).  She started with South African Johan Botha, the baritone turned tenor, an obvious and charming choice.  For video of Botha and a slideshow of Aida, click here:  Aida and Johan Botha.

Here is the full schedule of simulcast operas:  HD LIVE schedule

Fleming went to a somewhat haughty or impatient and short Dolora Zajick, the mezzo who started in opera in her role as the Egyptian princess.  To Dolora's credit, she has performed it 250 times.  On to the sweet and statuesque mezzo turned soprano, Lithuanian Violetta Urmana.

However, Fleming pulls out of her hat Alexie Ratmansky as if he just happened to be there, the ballet choreographer with his first opera dance.  Next three supernumeraries or background actors (non-singing), Chris, a reporter for Fortune Magazine, Ann, an actor who mentioned her Equity card and Reginald, a self employed man in health care.

Fleming spontaneously pulled aside John the production manager as well as the principals in the upcoming Turandot, Ukrainian Maria Guleghina in the title role of the ruthless princess. As Calàf, Marcello Giordani sings “Nessun dorma.”

Getting the big one out of the way?

Aida starts with a big aria by the tenor so Flemming starts with the big tenor. Such a big start, “the tenor frets for it” says Botha. Fleming asks if it feels good to get it out of the way. So for the rest of the show, says Botha, the audience asks who is that guy running around?

Johan says he tries to control his Wagner voice and keep a bel canto voice, as high as possible. He describes his character as running around in the dark, trying to please everybody. So after the triumphal march he sees the captured princess crying and wants to help her.

That answers my question about where the captain/slave love came from as it appears to just be.

He has a teacher in Berlin, Frau something, who asked him when he first sang for her, “Why are you screaming at me”. He talks of going from baritone to tenor. Brenda Ryan, his pianist, also goes to the singing teacher and discusses his performance.

Fleming noted there are a lot of Johan Botha fans in South Africa.

The overhead cam catches the diva diving

The camera mounted from the ceiling somewhere then showed the stage from behind the curtain. We see the crew member vacuuming the floor, moving set pieces of palace wall. The place looks cavernous. There’s a cameraman on foot on stage and he shoots below. Later such camerawork would capture the soprano Violetta Urmana tripping backstage. She falls forward. There’s a stagehand with a walkie talkie strapped on, escorting Urmana by holding her arm. Urmana tripped over a widening gap in the two pieces of moving stage floor.

Camera and sound

For the most part the cameras did a good job at revealing things normally occuring behind the curtain as well as helping provide insight into the characters and performers' personalities.  There was just one on-camera adjustment, a focusing when Dolora Zajick started to sing in her close up solo in Act 3.  I also thought the upturned camera from the orchestra pit to each performer taking a bow was a tad nauseating, the camera moved too fast also once backstage when peering down into a chamber below.

Broadcast cannot take the place of live performance in the theater

While even Fleming acknowledges no broadcast can take the place of a live performance and urges all to go to the opera house, the broadcast director did give a good feel for the cavernous size of the stage and towering sets with it's palace and tomb and cast of thousands.  The overhead camera particularly seemd effective in showing the enormous size of the cast almost with a headcount.  Great hair by the way.  Lots of thin black braids and bangs.  Lots of skin on the slaves and dancers.

Good sound as well as visual quality.  The comments I overheard in southern drawl as I left the theater by elevator, were that the sound was wonderful, the tenor was wonderful, the placement of the speakers effective.

I did move my seat though even to a neck straining fourth row in the sold out theater.  Two ladies next to me held a conversation in Russian during the simulcast.  I preferred to sit next to a girl alone with her homemade sandwich, in front of an enthusiastic gentleman who would applaud alone and hit the back of my seat with his foot.

I'm ready for my close up

Next Fleming corners Dolora Zajick, the Egyptian princess. She’s a tough cookie but accommodating enough. The audience kept laughing at the difference in tone between the effervescent Flemming in her red jacket looking like Miss America and the short, tough little mezzo whose character gets her lonely heart broken.

Violetta Urmana changed from mezzo and only performed Dolora’s role twice. She said she can’t sing low anymore, it hurts. Fleming agreed it’s tiring singing low. She asked, is Aida epic or intimate. Verdi intended it as a chamber opera.

Urmana answers epic in the triumphal scene but also with intimate scenes with characters deeply developed.

What speaks to you regarding Verdi, asks Fleming. Violetta answered she sings more Italian repetoire, she likes Verdi soprano phrases. Fleming says Verdi uses the whole voice like bel canto on steroids. She then urges Violetta to speak Lithuanian to her fellow Lithuanians. I notice how Violetta dwarfs Flemming but looks well matched to Johan Botha.

Dance cramming

Next up choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, who choreographed the pas de duex and the flit and frolick dance in costumes of airy white. He was head of the Bolshoi and this was his first dance for opera. Dance is only divertisement in opera not the story he says. Verdi is popular among choreographers. Don’t need to count as with Stravinsky. It’s rhythmic, danceable. Alexei says he loves dancers to move about a lot but then others marked the performance space to his surprise.

Super!

Next the supers.

Chris the reporter from Fortune magazine had to give the cliché about being a spear carrier. He said facetiously he as a non-singing background actor sings along with the chorus . . . sometimes. Normally he’s investigating corporate scandal. On stage he may carrier that spear but he’s also a cover for five others and needs to know the cues. He mentioned a lot of rehearsal for Dr. Atomic.

Flemming mentioned when her daughter supered in Marriage of Figaro at age six, she sang along with the chorus. Fleming’s ex also supered and said he was close enough to a principal to be spat upon.

Ann the super mentions getting her Equity card and auditioned to be full time at the Met.

Reginald the super auditioned to be in Sampson & Delilah. He’s in health care, self-employed.

The audience kept laughing each time the supers uttered a phrase. So weird to break the silence?

Fleming asks Reginald if he sings. Not with my voice, he says.

What no horses?

The audience at the Met and at San Francisco's Century theater at Westfield Center (near Bloomingdale's) loved the live horses.  The audience erupted in applause when the two matched bays strode onstage in the triumphal march.  No applause for the white roan later or the two white stallions harnessed together.  Wouldn't it have been a kick to get Renee to give the horses a few minutes of face time, maybe feed them a carrot?

Another cranky princess coming to a theater near you:  Turandot

Fleming went from the supers to upcoming principals in Turandot. She asked Marcello Giordanni about sharing the stage with Domingo as baritone.

He also noted that you can give the performance of your life in Turandot but if you don’t do well in the end on Nessun Dorma . . .

Maria Guleghina, who sings the princess, emphasized fragility in her character as well as singing her strong and loud.

November 7, 2009
US Encore: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 (6:30 PM local time)
Canada Encore: December 5, 2009, 1 pm


Just before the curtain rises she also nabs the production manager John, who explains the live HD camera is hanging from the grid near the ceiling. The grid holds lights and they hang the sets from this grid as well so they can move them.

Verdi's father/daughter love, jealousy and loyalty go international

Just a few words about Aida as the production resumed with it’s Verdian trademarks.

Briefly, Aida seemed like Rigoletto when in Act 3, the princess is torn between the love of her life, the enemy; and her beloved father. Except in Rigoletto the lover really is the enemy, a rake and seducer.

As in Trovatore, we have two prisoners, a parent and child. Aida has the prisoner of war Aida’s father, Amonasro, the king and princess Aida. In Trovatore it’s the troubador and his gypsy mother.

Both pairs yearn for nature as it is their freedom. Greenery, mountains. Cool valleys and green fields for Aida and her father. Cool valleys and green fields shall be our refuge, goes the duet. Stars will shine brighter . . . then as in Trovatore, there’s the dramatic revelation that a prisoner is a blood relative. Aida’s father makes his paternity known to his enemy, Radames. In Trovatore, the troubador, barely dead, is revealed as his killer’s brother.

Yet Aida suffers not just for love but for her country. Aida seems elevated into the grander scheme of things, a world of patriotism and love of country. Aida says she is suffering for her country. Yet she escapes and it’s her lover Radames who gets tried for treason, not Aida.

Like Trovatore, there’s a pardon offered by a rival in love. A pardon as a deal with the devil, for submission and one’s hand in marriage. Alas, Radames’ heart, he says, is free of guilt. He cannot be coerced.

The lovers then are doomed to die together but it’s a sweet gentle death to a violin. They seem to expire quietly together, not in an explosion of revenge as with the gypsy mother in Trovatore. Instead, it’s the Egyptian princess prone on the tomb, begging forgiveness from her beloved. In the libretto Radames had tried with all his might to dislocate the boulder sealing the entrance but he seemed to just accept his fate and the eternal love of Aida.

For more information on Met LIVE productions, click here:  Met HD broadcasts

For more information on Otello with Johan Botha in San Francisco in November:  www.SFOpera.com