[Met Performance] CID:295000
Aida {931} Metropolitan Opera House: 01/3/1989.
(Review)
Metropolitan Opera House
January 3, 1989
AIDA {931}
Giuseppe Verdi--Antonio Ghislanzoni
Aida....................Aprile Millo
Radamès.................Plácido Domingo
Amneris.................Stefania Toczyska
Amonasro................Sherrill Milnes
Ramfis..................Paul Plishka
King....................Dimitri Kavrakos
Messenger...............Charles Anthony
Priestess...............Sarah Reese
Dance...................Naomi Marritt
Dance...................Antoinette Peloso
Conductor...............James Levine
Review of Martin Mayer in Opera (UK)
The other new production of mid-season was "Aida," replacing a bargain-basement John Dexter 1970s version with styrofoam animals (but with a very concentrated Judgment Scene that held the attention of the audience at an angle made at the front of the stage). The original thought had been to revive the collaboration of Leonard Bernste and Franco Zeffirelli that gave us our wonderful 1960s Falstaff, but Bernstein chose to celebrate his 70th birthday elsewhere and Zeffirelli's designs would have doubled the national debt. After a roster of conductors had begged off what was, after all, a minimum engagement of eight weeks, Levine undertook it himself.
Sonja Frisell directed, to massive effect in a super triumphal march, creating also the most beautiful last scene I have ever seen by using both levels of the stage at once, a dumb show in the temple accompanying the ethereal farewells of the lovers below. Gianni Quaranta gave us handsome and serviceable sets, the big toe of the statue roughly the size of Radames's head; an observer with only marginal vision would easily know it was Egypt. Neither the Nile scene nor the Judgment scene worked very well, the first because the stage was dominated by a temple with a brightly lit doorway stage right, in which Amneris incomprehensibly stood a while to observe the conspirators among the papier-mâché rocks stage left, and the latter because there was too much marching back and forth.
I saw the second cast on January 3, preferring Aprile Millo and Stefania Toczyska (who sang the broadcast and will appear in it on [the first] night next season) to Leona Mitchell and Fiorenza Cossotto (who sang the prima). Placido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes and Paul Plishka (an outstanding Ramfis) remained to sing with the new ladies. Millo, who is legitimately the great hope of the house, was tense and suffered occasional wobbles on her first night in the part, but even then she sang the last scene to absolutely the highest historical standards-and in the broadcast the following Saturday she was exquisite throughout. Toczyska was a worthy rival, handsome, with a strong, accurate, almost vibrationless mezzo. As she increases her mastery of the style, she will be a great asset around here, for I gather the Met has had the foresight to sign her up for long periods.
Domingo was there, standing where he was told to stand and singing well, with zero involvement. Milnes, having given up efforts to dominate the house, sang on a smaller scale than his wont, but with much more of that old honeyed tone than we had been hearing of late. The show sold out ("Aida" always does), people liked it, and the Met doesn't have to think too much about "Aida" for a while.