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| Aida | 
 enlarge | Director: Franco Zeffirelli
Actors: Scott Piper, Enrico Giuseppe Iori, Adina Aaron, Kate Aldrich, Paolo Pecchioli
Studio: Tdk DVD Video
Category: DVD
Buy New: $56.99
New (1) Used (4) from $34.38
Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 102781
Format: Classical, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 188
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
UPC: 824121000011
EAN: 0824121000011
ASIN: B00008G6R3
Theatrical Release Date: 2001
Release Date: July 16, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Similar Items:
| • | Puccini - Turandot / Franco Zeffirelli - Marton, Domingo, Mitchell, Plishka, Cuenod - James Levine, MET (1988) | | • | Verdi - La Traviata / Bonfadelli, Piper, Bruson, Ricci, Peebo, Leveroni, Domingo, Busseto | | • | Tchaikovsky - Eugene Onegin / Fleming, Vargas, Hvorostovsky, Gergiev, Carsen [Metropolitan Opera 2007] | | • | Glinka - Ruslan and Lyudmila | | • | William Shakespeare's Hamlet (Two-Disc Special Edition) |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
Great Opera September 26, 2006
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
'Very Good interpretation'
This is the comment I have been receiving from those who saw this Opera, live.
The DVD is not different.
As far as I am concerned it has been able to provide proper appreciation of the creative work of such dramatic presentations set to music.
Aida, Opera of grandiose libretto and refined orchestra (The Grand March and Ballet), was supposed to see its premier in Cairo in 1869.
Ismail Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt, was the father eternal of the Grand Opera-House of Cairo.
The Pasha aimed at excelling Western cultures as art paramour and he asked Verdi to write an opera to be a masterpiece for posterity and take perpetual patriotic touches on the opening of the Cairo Opera House in 1869. (Not the opening of the Suez Canal as many believe so)
Eventually it had premiered in December 1871 due to the Franco-Prussian war, which created difficulties to transport the costumes and related paraphernalia from Paris to Egypt. The Acts scenes are at Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt, and require large number of players, Priests, Egyptian populace, Ethiopians prisoners of war, slaves, guards and soldiers and a spacious stage.
I wonder how the people in charge of any theatre should be able to provide the necessary accommodations.
Intimate Aida May 3, 2006
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Like the other reviewers of this DVD, I am most favorably impressed with this performance of Aida. It is a tribute to Verdi's genius that an opera that repays grand spectacle (And unfortunately, the opera itself can sometimes get lost in the spectacle), also works on a more intimate scale. And in the Teatro Verdi, one really has no other choice other than to be intimate.
The cast, all young and attractive, sing their roles with impressive polish and and professionalism. Of them all, I found Adina Aaron's Aida the best performance in this field of strong contenders. She handles this taxing role incredibly well, and with beautiful tone and control. Her acting is also impressive, although I would have liked a slightly more Royal demeanor when she tells Amonasro she is still his daughter, and will be worthy of her country in act III. Radames has no chance against her when she gets seductive with him in their Nile scene duet. I want to hear more from her in the future, not only as Aida, but in other Verdi roles. I hope she gets the major career she deserves. If she manages her career as intelligently as her performance suggests, she could be the next Leontyne Price in a world that sorely needs more Verdi sopranos. She's definitely off to a good start!
I liked the tone and quality of Scott Piper's voice as Radames, but I hope he doesn't sing Radames in any opera house LARGER than the Teatro Verdi for another decade or so. As pleasant as his voice is to hear, I found his singing underpowered in this part. He is not as developed a singer yet as Adina Aaron is,and I hope he doesn't push himself too hard too quickly. On the positive side, he definitely looks the part of Radames, and his Italian diction is elegant. As another reviewer remarked, he uses the voice he does have extremely well. He's a decent actor, as well. There is more than the usual tension in the love triangle, as the production suggests Radames' ambition and his fugitive attraction for Amneris are at odds with his love for Aida, and he must struggle to balance them.
Kate Aldrich is a very attractive Amneris, who is definitely a romantic contender in this love triangle. If it hadn't been for Aaron's seductiveness in the Nile Scene, she might have won Radames yet! She too can act, and her costumes are much more flattering to her face and figure than Aida's are to hers. Aldrich, like Aaron, definitely has the voice and vocal power to fit her part, and I hope she'll have a long, distinguished career. The duet between the women in Act II benefitted from the intimate setting, as the details really showed up.
Baritone Giuseppe Garra was a decent Amonasro. His voice was good, but I found his acting fidgety, especially in Act II. Amonasro should always be a King, even in defeat and in a humiliating situation. Garra moved around too much, whereas he might have been more effective if he'd stood his ground and faced the King of Egypt and Radames squarely. But his voice is good, and like the others, I hope to hear more from him.
Enrico Giuseppe Iori was a dignified, handsome Ramfis, and Paolo Pecchioli was a good if stiff King of Egypt. The staging of the Triumphal Scene was an excellent adaptation of opera to suit the theater's resources, and the ballet sequence was not missed by this viewer. I found the Ballet in the Temple of Vulcan scene was PLENTY. There was plenty of Ancient Egyptian visual splendor to go around in this production, and obviously, Zefirelli worked with his young cast in great detail. All the characterizations worked well, both individually and as a group.
The visual picture was clear, and my only quibble was that I found myself having to adjust the volume up or down frequently. Some musical passages were too soft and I had to turn up the volume to hear them at all, and then quickly turn the sound down again for the larger ensembles.
Video extras include some footage of the vocal rehearsals which were fascinating to watch. I hope Zefirelli will be around for a long time to come.
Numinous... March 1, 2006
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is a lovely production, intimate rather than stupendous. The sets, costumes, direction.... okay, the orchestra isn't the Met's, the singers are not seasoned, but altogether, this bunch makes an Aida better than the Met video with Domingo and Millo. I missed the elephants in that one, but I didn't even miss the horses in this one. Moreoever, the horses and chariots in the Met performance were the same, merely going round and round.LOL
What was touching was that no one was singled out for curtain calls, the cast, et al. appearing as a group. There was one stand-out singer, Kate Aldrich, who sang Amneris. Scott Piper's Radames and Adina Aaron's Aida just couldn't really compare with the the gloriouis voice of Aldrich. Scott and Aaron will grow, but I doubt they'll ever make it into celebrated singers.
Interestingly enough, those three are Americans -- what? -- Bergonzi couldn't find any Italians? Never mind, this is a wonderful experience and I gave it five stars because it was the little engine that did.
Nancy Eckert
Truly Celeste Aida!!! October 5, 2005
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
Last night I kicked back to watch, for the first time, the much-talked about Aida from the Verdi Centenary Celebration in his hometown of Busseto.
Franco Zeffirelli designed and directed and while he's so often accused (and often rightly so) of excess, the tiny 350 seat Busseto opera house, does simply not allow for big anything. The end result is that Zeffirelli seemed to take all of his creative power and infuse it into a spectacular small scale production where all of his big ideas shine through in his intense work with what has to be the youngest professional cast of any Aida
at any time in history.
In some reviews Scott Piper is criticized as having too small a voice, but wow what he does with it. It's a beautiful (gorgeous) sound not unreminiscent to me of the young Pavarotti, sharing that same "sun of Italy" brightness that made the superstar's
voice so individualistic and well loved. His Celeste Aida is, quite simply, sung with such beauty of tone and attention to detail that I played it twice more before moving on. Handsome and boasting a sort of "Blacktino" heart throb appearance, his Radames is a very involved, physically appealing boy warrior
caught up in his own hype. It's a thoroughly moving idea and it works like a charm here.
My new favorite YAM (Young American Mezzo) Kate Aldrich (a native Mainer!) is an Amneris of great physical and vocal beauty, and who throws a bit of 1920's silent film vamp into her gait that is amusing, appealing and not inappropriate here. Aldrich was only 26 with this Amneris but her sound belies her
age with a rich, velvety chest voice that dips deep
into the lower range with astonishing ease. In addition to her warm lower range, Aldrich also boasts top notes that are clear, ringing and rival the soprano's. An expressive actress, its nothing short of astonishing watching her pouty, spoilt-child Princess develop into a compassionate observer, awakened to
the brutality of her civilization. For once Amneris's shouts at the priests (paraphrased: You call yourselves ministers of heaven, but you feed on blood and slaughter) ring with a horrifying recognition that signifies the end of innocence. The final image as with the temple priestesses she invokes the gods for peace, we've witnessed an entire journey of development and
transformation. A truly remarkable performance.
Adina Aaron has a lovely radiance, but, I found just a hint of blandness to her performance in the first and part of the second acts. (I realize just how difficult it is to look "forlorn" for so long - something that rarely comes without years of stage experience which this singer simply hasn't had the benefit of.) She grows increasingly better with every appearance however,
and in the Nile Scene she comes into her own blazing with an intensity and sensuality rare in any Aida. This Aida pours on a seduction I have never quite witnessed before in this opera (or, really, ever even thought about) and it works. Radames is helpless as Aida sings, reaching into his already open tunic. Their kiss following "A noi duce fia l'amor" in the duet is not your typical opera stage kiss, but real. All of this, of course, would mean nothing if they couldn't carry it off musically and
the happy news here is the entire duet is ravishingly sung. The Italians loved it and applaud a good long while as the lovers grows more passionate and Aida's arm encircles and tightens around Radames' neck. Look out, hot stuff comin' through!
The costumes and heavy ancient Egyptian eye make up make everyone look beautiful and as though they'd all just popped off of an ancient painting on a papyrus. Zeffirelli presents a lot of new fangled ideas with old fashioned gestures to create an Aida that is artistically stunning and dramatically resonates with a lot of what's going on in the world today. His cast - from top to bottom - is gorgeous to look at and a better acted Aida would be hard to find.
The young Italian Maestro Massimiliano Stefanelli conducts with a brisk elan that sweeps everything along wonderfully, crisp and fresh, yet knows when to linger over a phrase or extend the line for a singer having a "moment." He has a field day with the Triumphal Scene and the sound coming from both the tiny stage and the pit of the theatre is amazing!
The whole thing (the sets really are an amazing achievement of old fashioned painted flat drops combined with 3-D set pieces that deceive the eye brilliantly) and works so well for the television screen that it almost feels made for it. I knew the theatre was small, but it's not until the entire company is lined up for a bow that one realizes how tiny the place is!
It struck me at one point that the three principals of this most Italian of operas, were all young American singers, singing in an Italian house - and the Italians absoltuely loved them! Pretty sweet. And pretty hopeful!
This Aida goes straight to the top of the list!
 UNIQUE AND UNCONVENTIONAL, BUT IT WORKS! April 20, 2005
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
Aida is an opera which has always been presented on the grand scale, and here we have a completely different approach to this massive work. It's been made very intimate and very immediate. This has a positive effect on the drama itself, and it certainly gives a better opportunity to concentrate on the actual drama of Aida, Rhadames and Amneris. The camera close-ups of the singers are especially helpful in this respect, and since all the lead singers are young and beautiful, this is really nice to watch. The sets are beautiful, though they too are scaled for the smaller stage utilized here. Overall, this is a wonderful way to experience "Aida", one that many will watch again and again.
The only caveat is that the opera is presented with some rather noticeable cuts --------- which are immediately obvious to anyone who knows the opera well. Were the opera presented in it's complete form, it would be worthy of a 5 star rating. The singing is excellent, considering the ages of the respective singers. No -- they do not approach the sheer power, volume and impact that seasoned operatic legends have lavished on this music, but they are quite good, and in a small theatre such as this one, their performances work well, as none of their voices are very large.
The production is very beautiful, and the orchestra plays the music beautifully. It's an outstanding way to introduce someone to "Aida" , but also an excellent way for an opera "veteran" to see this opera performed in a very unique and interesting manner.
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