Aida, Opera Holland Park, review: 'a feast for the ear'

Reviewing Samson et Dalila last week, I expressed sympathy for directors faced with the challenge of mounting operatic epics set in the Ancient World: should they plump for pseudo-historical kitsch as per the original stage directions or should they seek out a fresh contemporary context in which to make the drama meaningful?

Up against this quandary with Verdi's Aida, Daniel Slater has taken the latter course. He appears to have been inspired by the Ben Stiller caper movie A Night at the Museum, inasmuch as Robert Innes Hopkins sets the opera in the Egyptian gallery of a Washingtonian institution, where the ruling class, dressed in tuxedos and adhering to some arcane religious cult, fights a crusade against some unspecified proles (not visibly Islamic, incidentally).

Energetically and colourfully staged, the concept works quite amusingly for the evening’s first half. The stuffing is knocked out of the opera’s sclerotic plot, and Aida herself comes alive incarnated as a downtrodden cleaner fighting for Radames’ affections against Amneris the sardonic society hostess. The Triumph Scene was great fun, wittily played as an orgiastic fund-raising party in fancy dress.

^{Aida performed at Holland Park (Photo: Alastair Muir)}

But as so often with these bright ideas, there’s no real follow-through, and come the Nile Scene, Slater appears to have lost interest in making his ideas cohere with the libretto’s dramatic logic: his realization of the final scene, in which Aida and Radames are buried alive, is very feeble indeed.

Never mind, there’s lavish spectacle for the eye and a feast for the ear, as Manlio Benzi conducts the City of London Sinfonia in an excitable reading of the gorgeous score and the enthusiastic chorus kicks up a mighty storm in the victory parade.

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Once again, I was impressed by Opera Holland Park’s astute casting of the principal roles. Despite a pardonable accident at the climax of 'Celeste Aida', Peter Auty sang a fervent and confident Radames, producing some notably eloquent singing in his death throes. As Amneris, Heather Shipp may have lacked the vocal chops or the chest tones to make the Judgment Scene a show-stopper, but she gave the music everything she’d got, radiating svelte glamour and sophisticated bitchiness.

Best of all was Gweneth-Ann Jeffers, who made a touching and convincing figure of the emotionally conflicted Aida, declaiming 'Ritorna vincitor' with vivid force and bringing considerable refinement to the Nile Scene. Why don’t we hear more of this accomplished soprano?

Until 24 July. Box office 0300 999 1000, www.operahollandpark.com