This afternoon was the opening of the COC season and it kicked off with Aida, directed by Brit Tim Albery.
Though famous for its stirring choruses, Grand March, and a couple of show stopping arias, it isn't Verdi's finest opera. The plot and characters are thin and the dramatic structure a little odd: the first half is full of crowd pleasing noise and spectacle and all the dramatic value is crammed rather intensively into the shorter second half.
This is rather like the operatic equivalent of having your pudding first, then having to go back to eat some worthy unbuttered vegetables.
However this production really made the second half work. This was in part to the updated setting - instead of Pharoaonic Egypt, a 20th century totalitarian regime - which though it didn't work entirely in the first half, did set up the characters well for the second.
To take a deserved share of the credit however were the excellent Aida of Sondra Radvanovsky and the Amonasro of Scott Hendricks. Both artists sang and acted with utter conviction and sold to me characters whom I have previously found uninteresting.
After the opera, to the streets of Toronto for the annual Nuit Blanche - an all night series of art events and installations all over the city. A great atmosphere on the streets and a lovely way to experience the city.
Click for my YouTube clip of Nuit Blanche
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