Defying expectations
Predictions are thrown out of the window with Aida the clear winner, writes Amal Choucri Catta
Aida, dir. Abdallah Saad, cond. Nasser Abbassi, with Cairo Opera Company, Choir and Orchestra. Main Hall, Cairo Opera House, 18-22 September, 9pm
From 18 to 22 September Verdi's Aida, and on 20 September Cairo Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Sergio Cardenas, and with pianist Yasser Mukhtar, in their regular Saturday night slot: such were last week's musical highlights. Aida, one might have supposed, would amount to an evening of deja vu with little of particular interest, while Liszt's first piano concerto, and Tchaikovsky's fifth symphony, were widely anticipated. But crystal ball gazing, as happens often, proved to be a redundant exercise with Saturday's concert being in the end disappointing, while Aida was marvellous.
Aida will always be a winner at Cairo Opera House: she has, after all, been coopted as a national emblem. Aida is a symbol of love unabated and everlasting, the title role in an opera that combines outstanding music with a drama of overwhelming emotion.
Those emotions were perceptible from first awe-inspiring chords of the radiant overture preluding the drama. Nader Abbassi was conducting. Reda El-Wakil as Ramphis, and Walid Korayem as Radames, discuss the identity of the new commander who will lead the Egyptian army against the Ethiopians as the curtain lifts onto a hall in the king's place.
Abdallah Saad has done a good job directing this year: the sets did not overcrowd the stage as they have in earlier productions. Columns have been removed, creating more space for the priests, dancers, soldiers, slaves and soloists.
Iman Mustafa in the title role was at her best: a simple young woman in love with a man who is one of the greatest enemies of her country. Aida, this time round, was more lover than princess, a woman consumed by passion more than politics. Victim of fate, she finds herself torn between love and duty and in the end chooses love. There were great moments of joy and tenderness in Iman Mustafa's performance to match those of grief and anguish. This time round she was Aida wholeheartedly.
Hanan El-Guindi was equally convincing as Amneris -- at once beguiling, selfish, jealous, repulsive. She solicited and repelled in equal measure, at least until the fourth act, when she is transformed into a grief-stricken woman, repenting her denunciation of Radames as a traitor. Yet Amneris never stopped being a lady of nobility, even in her moments of passionate rage, even while cursing her jealousy and the love that destroys her. In her fury she curses even the priests as she stands alone, in black, like a goddess in her temple calling heaven's vengeance upon the entire Egyptian clergy.
Hanan El-Guindi has always been a ravishing interpreter of Amneris: she has the voice, the presence, the beauty and the charisma, and she is a capable actress, able, in the end, to excite our pity as she stands forlorn at the entrance of Radames' tomb, imploring Isis to open the heavens to the man she has loved too much.
This season's Aida also offered an excellent Amonasro in baritone Mustafa Mohamed, much applauded for his colourful timbre, his clear, strong voice and his stage presence. Amonasro's great moments occur in act three when he asks his daughter, Aida, to learn Radames's plan for his new anti-Ethiopian campaign. He is, after all, the Ethiopian king and will use any kind of ruse to lead his army to victory. When his daughter refuses to betray Radames he throws her to the ground in one of the opera's most dramatic scenes.
Mustafa Mohamed managed a beautifully convincing interpretation of this passionate outburst, producing a marvellous overall performance. Abdel- Wahab El-Sayed as Pharaoh, Reda El-Wakil as Ramphis also acquitted themselves well. This time Aida was indeed a stupendous show, deserving of the audience's cheers.
Cairo Symphony Orchestra, conductor Sergio Cardenas, with pianist Yasser Mukhtar. Main Hall, Cairo Opera House, 20 September, 9pm
Those cheers were less spontaneous at Cairo Symphony Orchestra's Saturday night concert. The programme, as originally announced, included Wagner's prelude to the Mastersingers of Nuremberg. This, though, was replaced by Abu Bakr Khairat's Variations on a theme by Sayed Darwish, the second movement, andante cantabile, of the composer's third symphony, Opus 23, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Khairat's death on 23 October 1963. Whatever the reasons, audiences dislike last minute changes of this kind.
Khairat's Variations appeared not to have been sufficiently rehearsed, with the instrumentalists less than scrupulous in following their maestro. Then came Yasser Mukhtar performing Franz Liszt's first piano Concerto in E-flat major, a symphonic poem in four movements, interpreted with adequate technique though with a cold wind blowing at the heart of what is a sensitive work.
Following the prelude the lovely dialogue between piano and clarinet evolves around a solemn melody; the youthfully voluptuous adagio develops a meditative tune with the flute as solo instrument and the pianist going into a series of virtuoso sequences. Technically accomplished, maybe, but where was the feeling? The allegretto vivace, a scherzo introducing the famous solo-triangle culminated finally in an allegro marziale.
Finally we reached Tchaikovsk'y Fifth symphony in E-minor, Opus 64, beautifully conducted. From the first pianissimo theme of the low strings, an eloquent, noble melody, evocative of fate, of nostalgia and sadness, returns repeatedly in each of the four movements. Tchaikovsky was in one of his most changeable moods when writing this symphony. Even the waltz of the third movement suggests tears behind the smiles. In the end sadness prevails as the theme grows to conclusion.
The maestro had finally succeed in shaking his instrumentalists out of their lethargy. Tchaikovsky saved the performance.
