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Conductor: Massimiliano Stefanelli
Stars: Adina Aaron, Kate Aldrich, Scott Piper, Giuseppe Garra, Enrico Iori, Paolo Pecchioli.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3121538/
Premiere 1871, Khedivial Opera House in Cairo
Time: period of the Pharaohs’ power
Place: Memphis and Thebes
Filmed at Teatro Verdi di Busseto
I have an ongoing eBay search for anything with Zeffirelli's name attached, hoping to capture more of his opera films/productions. This is exactly what I had in mind. And now that I've watched 2/3rds of the Tutto Verdi set, I know how small the theatre in Busseto is, so I was fascinated to know what the king of spectacle did with Grand opera in a shoebox theatre (seats 300; one Amazon reviewer quipped the stage was the size of a 2-car garage.)
Well, the stage is much bigger than it looked in that production, and the theatre has patron boxes up 3-4 flights, so the stage has some height as well.
We get gorgeous period costumes, and gorgeous sets.
Even better, we get gorgeous performers with superb voices, all coached personally by Zeffirelli on their acting for these roles. How do I know that? We get a 45min doc'y (not listed on IMDb, and I don't have the desire today) showing the process. It almost seems like some of it is a pre-audition session; there are lots of young performers in the room. Not surprising: the ones sitting forward, reacting are the ones who we see in the opera.
At least the top 3 roles are sung by young Americans, 2 are African American. (I got really excited when I heard Scott Piper; he's very pale, but has a voice for Otello. Found online that he has performed that in regional operas I really want to see that role played by a man of color.) Unfortunately, he has only one other recording (Traviata), and Aida (Aaron) has no others (not even on Amazon), but she too has plenty of regional/European credits.So what did they do with the opera in the small venue? Grand opera becomes intimate, and works really well. Aida is a love/jealousy story more than a story about war/slavery. So it absolutely works, plus we get the benefit of Zeffirelli's opulence. What we also get is a much-shortened Processional, which is portrayed happening off-stage, and we only see the backs of spectators (with Aida contemplating things downstage).
We get some dancing, mostly arm movements of 4 women dressed like my souvenir statuette (without the bird/gourd on the head) from the King Tut exhibit in '79 (online images to the right; she's named Selket). Another woman soloist dances in a bad costume for showing legs, but since she too mostly dances with her arms, maybe that was deliberate.The doc'y shows Zeffirelli coaching the singers in Italian, and sometimes English. Scott Piper was interviewed in Italian, but had to ask for the word for audience. This goes a long way toward my understanding of how well do opera singers need to know the language... at least of the director/staff where you're performing.
Even though I already have 2 Met productions (one from b'cast), and the Tutto Verdi production, I'm very happy to have this in my collection. (Interesting that a more recent 2014 dvd re-issue of the performance does NOT emphasize the Busseto location on the cover as this does. I never would have bought that one.)
My rating is influenced by the inclusion of the doc'y.
Fondazione Arturo Toscanini, cond. Stefanelli; 9
