Aida: Teatro Regio Torino (Noseda) [DVD] [NTSC]

Aida sums up all that Verdi had achieved, combining the strengths of Italian opera with that of French Grand opera, basically near the end of his second period. The Scenery by Stage director Luca Ronconi is super traditional, which makes those new to this opera understand why it is so well regarded. This production has Desert Scenes, faces of Pharaohs, Slaves pulling blocks of stone, being whipped, the Grand march with all that goes with it and the costumes are of the Egyptian period. I owned this once on Video, so I know this production very well. Aida has a great cast with Maria Chiara as Aida, with her luscious soprano. Radames is Luciano Pavarotti, with his beautiful voice and at his peak in 1985. Amneris Ghena Dimitrova mezzo makes a lot of her part, backed by the strong voices of Juan Pons and Nicolai Ghiaurov. The orchestra and Chorus of Teatro Alla Scala is conducted by Lorin Maazel, who brings this opera to life with his swift tempi and deep insight into Verdi. This is possibly one of the finest Aida's recorded live for TV, with these great singers at the peak of the form and Maazel on fire. However, I must point out the following, this is 4.3 picture format and has a black space each side of the picture. Usually on DVD I can make the picture fill my 42 inch wide screen, but this does not happen with this 4.3 bluray. Possibly if you have this years version of a bluray machine it might do the trick. The sound and colour is certainly better then the video I owned. This time it has English subtitles. When the Bluray is played after a few shorts of opera available on Bluray, a picture appears with the languages available. If it is English you want, pull the box from the picture with your remote and a line will appear beneath. Pull the line up to the box and press enter, Aida will now begin. Aida comes in a cardboard folder with details about the history of Aida and this production. PCM STEREO. SUBTITLES: English, German, French, Spanish, Netherlands. Region: Worldwide. 1080i High Definition.

How can any mere mortal pass comment on genius such as this.

This is just great. I cannot understand the comments of the previous reviewer to the extent that I wonder if this was the DVD they actually saw. This is the 2004 festival production filmed live in the Roman Quarry at St.Margarethen, Austria. It is truly spectacular, as Aida should be. The sets and costumes are excellent and the performance is on such a large scale that the production is able to use the almost fabled live horses, elephants and chariots that one virtually never sees in other stage-bound recordings, even though they are what everyone really expects in Aida. Musically the performance is excellent. The orchestra of the Brno National Theatre play extremely well under the baton of Ernst Marzendorfer and the cast are uniformly good singers, with no weak link. No great names here, but they are all extremely good performers and Eszter Sumegi is a really excellent Aida. It is true that there is sometimes an element of silent film style acting in the performances (especially from Amneris) but this is because the production is on such a large scale that exaggerated gestures are necessary to adequately convey the action to the open-air audience. The DVD is extremely well produced. There is a nice accompanying booklet. The picture is in PAL 16:9 format and the Dolby digital sound is available in three options, PCM stereo, Dolby digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1. There are optional subtitles in Italian English or German. The DVD will play in any region.

They have spared nothing insofar as the sets, costumes and such are concerned. In fact, caricaturisation or not, the effect is good. The video has been shot very well, is clear and crisp and does at no point of time show any lack of detail. Excellent, I would say. Kudos to the cameramen and production people. The voices, although not well known, are quite adequate for the roles and I could detect very few hiccups. Why then, just two stars? To begin with, bad sound engineering. These guys may be good recording in halls, but I think they have a lot to learn while recording and post production for the open air. The orchestra sounds detached or too thin in the soft passages and overpowering the voices in the loud ones. A sense of balance in the treatment of brasses is quite evident too. I am sure it was just great when people were watching it live, but in the DVD, it flops miserably. The ballet... less said about it the better. It is just next to pathetic, both choreography as well as dancing. The costumes in the Triumphant march ballet is more ideally suited to the Eurotrash that we see sometimes in the so called minimal modernistic productions. The dancers are dressed like they are going to do a BDSM right after the event. Actually they kind of do it to a 'beautiful' boy/man who is just as confused and lost as the dancers are. He is sacrificed anyway at the end of the dance. The dance director was confused as to whether he should introduce Egyptian motifs (which he does not) or European (which again he does not). It is a kind of fusion between Greek, French and Broadway at various times. The result is an unattractive hotchpotch. I would any day sit back and see a production of this on the DVD from say, the Met or La Scala. At least those fellers know from experience how to record a piece and definitely have better directors and choreographers. Unfortunately, it is rather harsh on the singers, all of them, who did a neat job. A lot of money spent is all I can infer. Wonder who the funders were...

Pavarotti sings splendidly but barely moves. The scenic effects are of Cecil B DeMille proportions. It is a curiosity.

Redonda producción escalígera con actuación estelar de la mejor Amneris del momento, Anita Rachvelishvili, que aporta enjundia y profundidad a la hija del faraón. Kristin Lewis es una Aida más que interesante que podrá pasear el personaje por todo el mundo. Sartori no parece querer buenos principios pero se redime en el acto IV, que es lo que cuenta. Bien Colombara e (¡incluso!) Gagnidze. Matti Salminen como siempre, o sea, poco. Dirección y ejecución musical como cabría esperar de sus protagonistas. Escena habitualmente oscura y minimalista con momentos muy logrados y vistosos. A destacar los cuadros primero del acto II con el dramático enfrentamiento Amneris-Aida, y el primero del acto IV de Amneris y Radames. Falta el ballet que habitualmente se intercala en mitad del cuadro del triunfo, pero no importa demasiado. Para los hispanoparlantes: excelente subtitulado por parte de Ediciones del Prado que respeta fielmente los maravillosos textos de Ghislanzoni (comparar, p. e., con las desgraciadas traducciones a que nos tiene acostumbrados el Met). Cómprenla.

Ottima interpretazione, sopratutto del soprano protagonista(aida), che mie piaciuto molto. Devo pero dire che tutto il cast mi ha soddisfatto.

当たり外れがあるTutto-Verdiシリーズだが、本版は歌手（特に主役の女性2人とアモナズロ役のガザーレ）、演出共に良い、たしかこのキャスト、演出で来日公演も行われたと思う｡この作品はヴェルディの作品の中でも人気があり日本でもよく内外の団体で上演されるが、自分は2回しか観ておらず、その中では1996年のフィレンツェ歌劇場来日公演がとても良かった｡本版も日本語字幕目的で購入したが内容は充実しており、Tutto-Verdiシリーズでは椿姫、ドン・カルロと共にお薦めの1枚｡

Très satisfait de cette interprétation d' Aida. Un spectacle à ne pas manquer!

I'm new to Opera in general but I got this Blu-ray based of general reviews. I found the music and singing simply superb and breathtaking! The audio and video recording is first rate. The costumes and set design of ancient Egypt is elaborate and eye candy for the senses. The 2.5 hours go by quick as one is lost in the music. I found myself clapping after almost each set. The soloists are powerful and first rate and the choir ensemble provides that warm background music we all love. One thing I found a bit odd is how the disk was authored. They have the stereo track as the first default track which is not preferable if you have a multichannel audio system. Make sure you pick the 2nd track which is the multichannel 5.1 DTS-MA soundtrack and not the default stereo default track. You'll find yourself humming a few memorable snippets after you watch this opera. I enjoyed it that much.