Name that Opera: Pavarotti Sings Radames

Opera buffs who love Pavarotti will be able to guess which opera includes Egyptian intrigue, Ethiopian treachery, unrequited love, father-daughter collusion, and a slave girl who is not really a slave girl.

That's because she is a princess, serving another princess who doesn't know she isn't a slave girl. (Got that?) And just to make it more convoluted, they are both in love with the same handsome warrior, Radames (Pavarotti.) He is summoned by the gods no less to lead the Egyptian army as they fend off attack by the marauding Ethiopians. Ethiopia happens to be the fatherland of the slave girl/princess who was captured and taken into slavery by the Egyptians (during some pre-opera skirmish). So now, she and Radames face the horror that he must go beat, bloody and kill her own countrymen and possibly even her own father and brothers. As you can imagine, this kind of heartwrenching drama can result in some pretty spectacular arias, especially when sung by Maria Chiala and Lucianno Pavarotti who had a tenor voice the likes of which we'll only hear again in heaven.

The name of the opera and the slave girl is, you guessed it, AIda, pronounced "I-ee-duh." It is by Guiseppe Verdi, papa patriarch of Italian opera, whose name means Joe Green in English. Verdi also created La Traviata and Rigoletto, among many, many others.

Anyhoo, back at the palace Radames has to do what he has to do, and later is even offered the Pharoah's daughter's hand in marriage for vanquishing the enemy. It's a good deal because they could rule all Egypt together, but on the other hand, it puts a crimp in his torrid love affair and secret engagement to Aida. What a tangled web, eh? The Princess Amneris senses who her rival is and manages to trick Aida into confessing her love for Radames. How? By shocking the poor girl out of her senses with the cruel, not even true announcement that Radames bit the bullet, excuse me the spear, in battle. Aida goes into some intense aria singing at this point, revealing the depth of her love. Princess Amneris hits a few high notes herself gloating over her successful ploy.

Guess who the Egyptian army happens to capture in battle? None other than Aida's father, Ethopian King Amonasro. (Why do parents saddle kids with these names?) There Aida is, slaving away trying to keep Princess Amneris pacified, when she hears the news of Radames'' triumphant return. The army marches into the public square singing a rousing, triumphal march, and Aida sees her Dad being hauled into the palace. What an emotional roller-coaster this girl has been on! Of course, she brings a lot of it on herself, because you cannot trust her to keep a secret for one measly scene, and she doesn't get that when she sings out loud, everybody can hear her. So she sings "Father! " in a very high attention getting, and I must say beautiful, soprano, which ought to "out" poor old Dad right then and there, because,duh, the Egyptian Pharoah and Princess can hear her plain as day.

In just a few arias, Aida gets the chance to betray everyone else, too, including Radames, She convinces him to run away with her, by some route other than the one where the Egyptian army is laying in wait for the Ethiopians. Of course, Radames, thinking out loud in song, happens to mention just what route that might be, and Aida's father, who thought up this plan in the first place, is hiding in the scenery and hears exactly where the Egyptians wait like sitting ducks. The Ethiopians, after some big time Egyptian clobbering, go home all in one piece, singing at the top of their lungs.

So now Radames and Aida must go to their deaths, sealed in a tomb, which seems to happen frequently in Italian operas. Tjh he gripping, epic last act involves priestly incantational choruses, Princess Amneris frantically trying (by that I mean singing) to get amnesty for Radames, and some very moving, passionate back and forth aria-ing between Aida and Ramedes as they prepare to enter the next world together.

Believe you me, this is no plodding, archaic irrelevance (even though it was introduced by Verdi back in 1871.) This is soaring, thrilling opera, full of passion, power and brilliance, and talent you will not believe.

The production of Aida with Pavarotti and Maria Chiara, filmed in 1985 at La Scala in Milan was magnificent. Pavarotti's opening aria "Celeste Aida" won a two minute ovation. You can still buy a DVD copy. The staging and sets were not in the same league as Pavarotti's voice, but then what is? Another production, this time with Daniela Dessi and Fabio (no, not that Fabio) Armillato, was actually performed in 2003 against the historic paper trompe-l'oeuil sets painted by Josep Mestres Cabanos between 1936-1945. These masterpiece sets are amazing, the lighting is pure genius, and the choreography spectacular. That production, filmed in Barcelona at the Gran Teatre del Lucci, is no longer being sold on DVD, sad to say, but is still available in libraries. There are many rapturous productions of Aida captured on DVD, but your humble reviewer has not seen all of them, and will only comment on those her eyeballs have actually viewed.

The Metropolitan Opera Guild Stories of the Great Operas, John W. Freeman 1984

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