Verdi: Aida **
Opera Holland Park, 24th June 2015
Third time unlucky? After a scorching start to the summer, with superb productions of Il trittico and Flight, Opera Holland Park’s season came unstuck with a horror of a show in Daniel Slater’s Aida. A museum setting, with a handsome bust of Isis flanked by a pair of Anubis statues, held promise. Summoning the spirits of the characters to life – a Belphégor: Le fantôme du Louvre style staging – could work. Aida as Egyptologist fantasy? Instead, Slater turned Verdi’s opera into a daft class conflict, pitting rich partygoers against museum staff.
Heather Shipp (Amneris) and Peter Auty (Radamès)
© Robert Workman
Read the full review on Bachtrack.