Aida

Graham Vick specialises in staging operas in bizarre settings. Every year he stages an opera in Birmingham, usually in a deserted factory . This staging of Aida is on an artificial island off the shore of Lake Constance in Bregenz, Austria. His budget was probably about a thousand times what he has to spend in Birmingham but the production has some familiar Vick traits. It is in modern dress, give or take the odd Egyptian headdress, We have people wandering round the stage with bags over their heads, a chorus of policemen with riot shields and Ethiopian prisoners wearing reflective jackets. The set consists of a gigantic pair of blue feet mounted on a stone staircase. There is also a sort of cracked Statue of Liberty that is hoist over the proceedings midway through the first act.

Musically, the production is less impressive. It is difficult for two people to sing together when they are standing at either end of an island. Although the sound is miked it sounds tinny and entrances are sometimes a bit scrappy as though the singers could not see the conductor's beat. I assume that the numerous bollards placed around the stage hide monitors showing Carlo Rizzi conducting.

As may be expected, the lake is used as often as possible. People are pushed into it. People fall into it. People jump into it. People emerge from it. The ballet is danced in the water with risible effect. I pitied the poor dancers. Ramades' entrance during the grand march is on a huge, pink, plastic elephant mounted on a motor-boat.

So far so bad. Things improve in the more intimate scenes in the second act. The sound quality seems to get better and the singers are, literally, more together. The singing generally is of a good provincial standard. Tatiana Serjan, as Aida, is the best of the bunch although her "O Patria Mia" falls rather flat. Rubens Pelizzari is a strangely uninvolved Ramades, more concerned with what piece of scenery he has to pose on than with producing a dramatic performance. Iano Tanar is a disappointing Amneris with none of the creamy low notes that this part demands.

Graham Vick does pull off one coup de théâtre in the final scene. Instead of being walled up in a tomb, Ramades dies, predictably enough, by drowning. He then appears on a boat with Aida to sing their final duet. The assumption is that he is now already dead and they are on their way to heaven together. The boat is hoisted out of the water, high into the sky and then swings over the lake to disappear into the night sky. The effect would appear even more effective if Rubens Pelizzari did not look so terrified.

The applause from the audience of 7000 tourists, seems distinctly muted. They are briefly shown and many of them are wearing plastic macs and rain hats so maybe it was not just the unfortunate performers who got drenched that night. At St. Margarethen, in Switzerland, they do this sort of thing much better in an old quarry. They even have a real elephant. This production, with its over-sized props, silly costumes and frequent duckings in the lake reminded me most of that silly 1960's game show Jeux Sans Frontières. Aida never fails to bring tears to my eyes. On this occasion they were tears of laughter.

Aida is one of my all-time favourites, and I would see any production of it, likewise with a Verdi opera like Don Carlo and La Traviata. Beforehand, my least favourite Aida production was the 1992 production(excluding the 1953 film with Sophia Loren with Tebaldi and Stignani's singing), it did look great in the costumes and settings and the support cast(Zajick, Ghiuselev and Pons) was great, but the leads were second-rate, the choreography was dull and the orchestra was inconsistent.

However, after seeing this 2010 production, things have changed. Alongside the 2005 Don Carlos, this is not just my least favourite Aida but one of my least favourite productions of any of Verdi's operas. It does get plus points for the superb music, very good orchestral playing and conducting, though they are undermined by the tinny sound, and Tatiana Serjan's wonderful Aida.

Other than that, this production of Aida falls flat. The camera work a vast majority of the time is incoherent, with not enough close up shots and too much of me wondering if the principals were actually on the scene. The sets may be big, but they really take you out of the setting. For an opera that is meant to be set in Egypt, I wasn't sure what a giant Statue of Liberty head was doing there. The lake itself was quite stunning, but the constant ducking into it got distracting after a while.

The costumes are unexceptional on the most part, prisoners in black hoods, really(?), and while I don't mind inventive ideas and minimalist stagings I don't like it when it is too eccentric and leave a bad taste in your mouth, and that is what they did here. If there was one touch that I did like, though I'd personally wouldn't do it like that, it is the boat of the dead touch in the final scene.

I disliked everything else though, especially the most inept choreography, excepting the golden elephant, of the triumphal march that I have ever seen. Other touches I didn't like was the start of act 2 and the idea of Amneris leading two men on leashes crawling along on the ground.

Apart from Serjan, the rest of the performances disappoint. Rubens Pelizzari is very uninvolved and strained as Rhadames, and there is little or no chemistry between him and Serjan with exception of the final scene. Iain Paterson's voice is nowhere near powerful enough for Amanasro, and sadly his legato singing is choppy. Tigran Martirossian has a decent voice but as Ramfis he is static dramatically.

Iano Tamar fares much better, she is a very good actress and performs Amneris with relish. However for me some of her chest notes seemed forced rather than creamy, the latter is what they should be like. Overall, very disappointing, not a complete disaster but the staging and inconsistent performances bring it down. For the best production of Aida, look no further than the 1989 Met production. 4/10 Bethany Cox