July 27, 2003: Aida in Verona

2003-07-27 Aida (G. Verdi), Arena di Verona

The King = Carlo Striuli
Amneris = Larissa Diadkova
Aida = Micaela Carosi
Radames = Piero Giuliacci
Ramfis = Giacomo Prestia
Amonasro = Ambrogio Maestri
High Priestess = Antonella Trevisan
A messenger = Mauro Buffoli

Daniel Oren, conductor

After traveling most of the day by train. 9.30 from Munich and in Verona by 1505. I went by taxi to the hotel. Luckily the Hotel Tryp have a courtesy bus, so I was lucky enough to use that most of the time I was going to Verona, Piazza Bra and the Arena. Anyway I took one of at 19 something, it is a 9-seater, and it is free if the seat is free. I saw a hugh queue of people, actually more than one. I though they was wanting tickets, no, they were lining up, so that they could get a good seat in the unnumbered seats, the cheap tickets. So I got a cheap ticket for sector B, well, Euro 17,50 (is cheaper than Euro 139).

So there I was, it was still not even 20hrs, and I was hungry. But luckily I could buy Coca Cola and something to eat. I was seated beside the stage, so sometimes the singers were hidden behind the statues, but I could also see people getting out from under the pyramid. It was a black curtain there, but it was a very windy night. It was also lightning during most of the Aida, but no rain, so the show could go on. I don't think I heard any thunder. Maybe the orchestra drowned it?

Then it was 21.15 the opera starts. I would have loved to get to see Salvatore Licitra as Radames, but it was another chubby tenor that sang. Quite good. Ambrogio Maestri who I later saw as Germont père in La traviata, was Amonasro. Very imposing voice. Micaela Carosi, that sang Liú almost a month ago in Turandot with Cura, was really impressive as Aida. Larissa Diadkova as Amneris was great, impressive. The duet between Aida and Amneris was great, but unfortunately when Amneris line came "Fissami in volto... " (look me in my face) Amneris did not look at Aida, a serious mistake. Another bad thing was that the war prisoners was so few, like just a handful, now how could Amonasro think that he could win over the plenty Egyptians with that lot. Radames, not very impressive, the King and Ramfis, why afraid to release them....Stupid. Less priests and more Ethiopians.....

A typical overloaded Zeffirelli opera, do really the whole stage have to be packed... And action (like dancing) going on all the time. So many distractions. But that's the Arena.

Another thing... famous opera... people humming or singing along the singers and orchestra, annoying. And sometime talking or laughing, or just humming, really bad.
Arena
27 July 2003 - 21.15



Aida


Opera in 4 acts by Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni


PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR Daniel Oren


DIRECTOR Franco Zeffirelli
SCENOGRAPHER Franco Zeffirelli
COSTUME DESIGNER Anna Anni
CHOREOGRAPHER Vladimir Vassiliev
CHOIR MASTER Marco Faelli
Director of the Corps de Ballet Maria Grazia Garofoli
Light Designer Paolo Mazzon
Director of stage design Giuseppe De Filippi Venezia


CAST



Prima ballerina Myrna Kamara
Male lead dancer Gregor Hatala
Akmen Amaya Ugarteche

OD Travel

July 10, 2015: Norma in Siracusa

2015-07-10 Norma (Bellini), Siracusa Teatro Greco

Norma = Chiara Taigi
Adalgisa = Adriana Damato
Clotilde = Anna Consolaro
Pollione = Piero Giuliacci
Flavio = Giuseppe di Stefano
Oroveso = Jose Antonio Garcia

Jacopo Sipari di Pescasseroli, conductor
Orchestra Sinfonica Bellini Opera Festival
Coro Lirico Siciliano (Francesco Costa)

Regia & Scene = Enrico Castiglione

Costumi = Sonia Cammarata

A wonderful location, a wonderful production. E la grande simplicita!

To compare this Norma to the Norma of Bayerische Staatsoper Munich would be unfair. They are so different. Here we had the Norma of Chiara Taigi who clearly do love her children. That is the biggest difference so we have much more sympathy for this Norma. Chiara Taigi has a different approach in singing and acting this role than Sondra Radvanovsky. Both are great. Adriana Damato is still in my opinion very much a soprano even as her voice has always been dark and she is able to sing the mezzo part of Adalgisa very well. Of course both roles, Norma and Adalgisa, lays in between soprano/mezzo territory, so all is good. As usual Pollione is often sung by a tenor with more strength than belcanto. Here we have the Pollione of Piero Giuliacci and he can belt it out and in the end he still soars especially in the ending of the opera. As Flavio we have a well known name but it is not the Giuseppe Di Stefano, this is a young Italian tenor (http://www.reggiotv.it/notizie/cultura/25699/lirica-giuseppe-stefano-trionfa-al-concorso-spoleto). Anna Consolaro as Clotilde. Finally we have Jose Antonio Garcia as Oroveso. Bravi tutti!

And the evening ended with everybody singing Happy Birthday (in Italian) to Chiara Taigi!!!
Happy Birthday, Chiara Taigi!! Tanti auguri!!

OD Travel & Photos
Original blog post

For more reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com If you want to see more photos from my OperaDuets Travels, go to www.operaduetsphotos.com