United States Verdi, Aida: Soloists, Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orchestra / Yannick Nézet-Séguin (conductor). Metropolitan Opera, New York, 4.1.2025. (RP)
Production:
Production – Michael Mayer
Set designer – Christine Jones
Costume designer – Susan Hilferty
Lighting designer – Kevin Adams
Projection design – 59
Choreographer – Oleg Glushkov
Chorus master – Donald Palumbo
Cast:
Ramfis – Morris Robinson
Radamès – SeokJong Baek
Amneris – Judit Kutasi
Aida – Angel Blue
King – Harold Wilson
Messenger – Yongzhao Yu
Priestess – Amanda Batista
Amonasro – Quinn Kelsey
It was tenor SeokJong Baek to the rescue for the second performance of Michael Mayer’s new production of Verdi’s Aida for the Metropolitan Opera. Its gala premiere on New Year’s Eve was, by all accounts, undercut by Piotr Beczała’s attempt to sing the Radamès when he was too ill to do so. The same fate befell Beczała on New Year’s Eve 2023 when he withdrew from Carrie Cracknell’s new production of Bizet’s Carmen.
Baek’s availability was fortuitous, as he had sung the role opposite Angel Blue’s Aida at The Royal Opera in London in May 2023. Their onstage chemistry was apparent from the start. Baek has charisma, as well as a voice. If this rising tenor star was more stolid than emotive in this performance, that was enough given the circumstances.
The tenor strode confidently on stage and sang ‘Celeste Aida,’ generally considered the most difficult of Verdi’s tenor arias, with his customary gleaming, forthright tone. His sound rode effortlessly over the orchestra in the aria’s heroic passages and shimmered when he expressed Radames’s love for Aida. The aria’s final high B-flat rang victoriously, with Baek making a decent stab at the morendo, or the dying away effect, which Verdi noted in the score.
With that out of the way, the focus shifted to where it properly belonged – Mayer’s new staging and Blue’s house debut in the title role. As originally envisioned, Beczała’s Radamès was to be the icing on the case, rather than the cause of a succès de scandale.
It was a bumpy road from concept to premiere for the Met’s new Aida. The pandemic scuttled the plan for the production to open the Met’s 2020-21 season. It was also conceived as a co-production with the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and starring Anna Netrebko, until the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Mayer had the unenviable job of replacing Sonja Frisell’s 1988 staging, beloved by audiences for its monumental sets and a Triumphal March with horse-drawn chariots. For die-hard traditionalists, this new Aida should just about fit the bill. The sets are every bit as grand as the ones which they replaced. He even incorporated two massive columns from Frisell’s production into the grand gate of Thebes, where the Triumphal March takes place.
The set is compact so that the opera now runs with just one intermission. One basic set serves for all scenes. It is transformed into a massive wall with complex stairways to hold the crowds assembled for the Triumphal March. The structures are covered in hieroglyphs, which come alive through colored projections. The stage elevator is employed in the final scene to reveal the chamber where Aida and Radamès will die below the Temple of Ptah, where a distraught Amneris prays to Isis.
Mayer does toss in a bit of a concept, which might prompt consternation to some. The young people seated behind me were very excited about what they termed the ‘Indiana Jones’ touch. This was the introduction of energetic early-twentieth archeologists marching about the set, hunting for treasure while simultaneously discovering the story of Aida. At the beginning of the Triumphal March, the archeologists carry treasures out of the tombs. They soon yield, however, to the expected procession of resolute soldiers and captured Ethiopians.
Blue triumphed in her Met debut as Aida. Her voluptuous voice resonated with both rapture and despair as she expressed Aida’s conflicting emotions over her love for Radamès and her loyalty to her homeland and father. If Blue’s soprano momentarily faltered on ‘O patria mia,’ it was a brief lapse. Shortly after, in Aida’s love duet with Radamès, Blue’s voice throbbed with emotion, floating effortlessly above the orchestra. That duet also showed Baek at his lyrical best.
Judit Kutasi was a strong-voiced, imperious Amneris. Her mezzo-soprano can take on a dusky tone, but generally, it rang out clearly, effortlessly riding over the orchestra and chorus in Triumphal Scene. Quinn Kelsey was an imposing Amonasro, his voice beautiful whether expressing love for his daughter or raging against the Egyptians.
Donald Palumbo returned as chorus master and the Met Chorus sounded terrific. The women’s singing was particularly beautiful and expressive when celebrating Radamès in the Act II ‘Chi mai fra gli inni e i plausi’. Choreographer Oleg Glushkov created graceful, undulating dances for the women. Those for the men contained the same fluidity but also energetic displays of athleticism.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin led the Met Orchestra in a lush and exciting reading of the score. He was as alert to musical detail as he was to the drama. The eight trumpets standing in side boxes were integrated into the Triumphal March with the lightest of touches. It came a few days late, but this performance launched Mayer’s production and won over the audience. And it didn’t take horse-drawn chariots to do so.
Rick Perdian
Featured Image: Act I, Scene 2 of Verdi’s Aida © Ken Howard / Met Opera