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| Aida (Savonlinna Opera Festival, 2022). Helena Juntunen (in the forefront and in the background video projection) as Aida. |
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| Aida (Savonlinna Opera Festival, 2022). The lamphouse wall and the video projection on the castle wall. Stage director: Philipp Himmelmann. Stage designer: David Hohmann. Lighting designer: Fabiana Piccioli. Video designer: Tieni Buchhalter. |
Giuseppe Verdi: Aida. Opera in quattro atti
LIBRETTO: Antonio Ghislanzoni
Finnish translation: Leena Vallisaari
PREMIERE: First performed in Cairo, Khedivial Opera House, 24 December 1871
Finnish premiere: 1916
First performance at Savonlinna Opera Festival: 1986
CAST
AIDA ............................. soprano
1., 4., 6. & 22.7. ........... MICHELLE BRADLEY
12., 16., 18., 20. & 23.7 ..HELENA JUNTUNEN
RADAMÈS ................................ tenor
1., 4., 6., 18. & 22.7. .......... GASTON RIVERO
12., 16., 20. & 23.7. .......... MARTIN MUEHLE
AMNERIS ............................mezzo-soprano
1., 4., 6., 18. & 22.7. .... AGNIESZKA REHLIS
12., 16., 18., 20. & 23.7. . ÈVE-MAUD HUBEAUX
AMONASRO ................... baritone
..........................................TOMMI HAKALA
RAMFIS .....................................bass
1., 4., 6., 18. & 22.7. .. ALESSIO CACCIAMANI
12., 16., 20. & 23.7. ............. TIMO RIIHONEN
KING OF EGYPT ................. bass TAPANI PLATHAN
MESSENGER ................................. tenor JOHAN KROGIUS
PRIESTESS....................... soprano IRIS CANDELARIA
PERFORMANCES
1.7. premiere
4.7., 6.7., 12.7., 16.7., 18.7., 20.7., 22.7., 23.7.
Conductor ..........................................VILLE MATVEJEFF
Assistant conductor....................MARIA ITKONEN
Stage director ........................................PHILIPP HIMMELMANN
Assistant stage director ........ RIIKKA RÄSÄNEN
Choreography................................................ KRISTIAN LEVER
Stage designer .................... DAVID HOHMANN
Costume designer ...................................LILI WANNER
Lighting designer ..................FABIANA PICCIOLI
Video designer ........................... TIENI BURKHALTER
Chorus master ...................................... JAN SCHWEIGER
SAVONLINNA OPERA FESTIVAL CHOIR
Sung in Italian.
Finnish surtitles ............ SUSANNA CAROTENUTO
English surtitles .......................... JAANA KUORINKA
Live surtitling ......... SUSANNA CAROTENUTO JA LAURA VIERIMAA
The performance begins at 19 and ends at about 22.00. One interval.
Sets and props made jointly by students from Savonlinna Upper Secondary and Vocational College (SAMI).
Répétiteur ..........................HANS-OTTO EHRSTRÖM
Music managers ...ROOPE MÄENPÄÄ JA PAULIINA OKKONEN
Venue manager ..................LAURI AKKILA
Technical stage manager ...OLIVER EAGLE-WILSHER
Head of workshop .............AHTI JALKANEN
Production assistant ..........MIRVA KOIVUKANGAS
Make Up ...........................JANI KYLMÄLÄ
Head of wardrobe .............HELI ROININEN
Props .................................SANNA TYNKKYNEN
Technical producer.............JOONAS VÄKEVÄINEN
Head of productions ..........JUKKA POHJOLAINEN
SAVONLINNA OPERA FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA
Dancers:
RÉMI BENARD
PAOLO BUSTI
ADRIEN DELÉPINE
MERIT LAENGNER
CAROLINA MANCUSO
OLIVIER OMETZ
GRETA RODORIGO
ALESSIA RUFFOLO
Savonlinna Opera Festival, Olavinlinna / Olofsborg, Savonlinna, 18 July 2022.
AA: After three years, Savonlinna Opera Festival has reopened. I am just an accidental opera-goer, but always gratified when I go. Giuseppe Verdi's Aida belongs to the most beloved core listening in the history of music, also for me. In Finland, Giuseppe Verdi, especially Nabucco, has also always resonated in a special way as a music of liberation, and he also inspired his contemporary Fredrik Pacius to compose the first Finnish opera in his spirit.
Seeing Aida performed is completely different. The acoustics of the Olavinlinna Castle (1475) is magnificent, and I marvel at the art of the performers, singers projecting arias without amplification in a huge space like this while the orchestra is playing and the choir is singing. It is a beautiful but cool evening. The record-breaking heat waves of Europe are bypassing us, but the enthusiastic audience brings its own heat with it.
In traditional interpretations such as Aida seen here in Savonlinna in 2012, it is lavishly set in Ancient Egypt, but in Philipp Himmelmann's direction and David Hohmann's stage design, it happens in a timeless, dismal now, reflecting Russia's war against Ukraine that started in February 2022. It is a welcome notion to break free from tradition and introduce a fresh interpretation. Myself, I also adore traditional concepts in classic works and think that talented directors and designers cannot help bringing thousands of fresh touches and emphases to them, as well. Aida is a devastating tragedy about the fate of love and humanity in wartime. I feel that a gloomy design is "more is more" and that a glorious, beautiful design could suggest a Gegenbild, a promise of hope, and evoke the better angels of our nature. The relentlessly sinister stage concept is a powerful statement about our time.
As it is, it changes the balance of the performance and guides us to focus to an exceptional degree on the music and the performances. As a musical experience this Aida is magnificent, in the legendary choruses, in the rousing epic passages and the tragic lyrical arias. The love theme in the stage direction feels superficial, emphasizing erotic titillation in a way that feels superfluous. But the grandeur of the passion in the music is too overwhelming for the stage direction to hamper.
Aida is a black princess of Ethiopia, traditionally performed in black body paint by the greatest sopranos in history. The use of black body paint has fallen under increasing criticism in recent years, and the tradition is about to be banned.
Colour-blind casting is increasingly the norm since Hamilton (2015), also in film adaptations of classics such as David Copperfield (2019). A "united colours" approach is an engrossing phenomenon of our global age, a promising signal of our progress beyond racism.
Aida in Savonlinna has double casting: first cast with the black soprano Michelle Bradley, the performances now continue with Helena Juntunen in paleface. Both are great, but for me, a snow white Aida is a jolting Verfremdung effect, consistent with the bleak stage design.
I understand the criticism and even the willingness to cancel black body paint, because it has often been used in a demeaning way of pejorative racial clichés. However, I don't think this is the whole truth. Great characters of tragedy such as Aida and Othello have always been performed with dignity and grandeur. They are us, we are them.
Aristotle said that the urge to play is the most distinctive character that separates humans from animals, ever since childhood. The human is the most playful animal. By playing we learn who we are and who others are. A play is also about learning about the other by becoming the other, the me in the other. The play brings us together. We dress in others' clothes and use masks and bodypaint. It is in our nature. But because this disposition has been abused, certain uses are becoming banned.
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| Clemente Fracassi: Aida (IT 1953). Sophia Loren as Aida in her first starring role (doppiatora originale: Renata Tebaldi, canto). |
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| Maria Callas as Aida in 1951 in Mexico. |
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