Amal Choucri Catta welcomes back an old friend Opera Aida by Giuseppe Verdi, director Abdalla Saad, with the Cairo Opera Company; the Cairo Opera Orchestra, conductor Ivan Filev; the Cairo Opera Choir, director Aldo Magnato; and the Cairo Opera Ballet Company, artistic director Erminia Kamel. Cairo Opera House Main Hall, 5-6 February, 8pm She has a way of returning every season to the Cairo Opera's Main Hall, winning more fans and making new friends. Last week, she returned again, for two nights, singing her song of hope and her prayer for mercy, before being buried alive with her beloved Radames. Aida, Giuseppe Verdi's four-act opera, has been presented in multiple versions, with different foreign sopranos singing the part of the Ethiopian princess turned slave to Pharaoh's daughter, princess Amneris. In last week's version at the Main Hall, Aida was the Italian soprano Raffaella Battistini, who had studied singing with Jose Carreras and Katia Ricciarelli, and performed with famous singers like Pavarotti. She also sang the farewell mass for Renata Tebaldi, the internationally renowned soprano who died recently. Raffaella Battistini won a number of laurels and first prizes at singing competitions and toured the world. She is an excellent performer, though her movements on stage were, at times, somewhat awkward and her extra-dark make-up was absolutely unbecoming. Once again we were given tenor Walid Korayem in the role of Radames, bass Abdel Wahab El-Sayed as Pharaoh, bass-baritone Reda El-Wakil as the high priest Ramfis and baritone Mustafa Mohamed as Amonasro -- king of Ethiopia, prisoner of the Egyptian army. Soprano Jehane Fayed was the priestess singing behind the scenes and tenor Tamer Tewfik the messenger. Last but absolutely not least we were also given mezzo-soprano Jolie Faizy as Amneris, Pharaoh's daughter and princess of Egypt, who stole the show. Jolie Faizy is a hard- working young lady heading straight for the top. She graduated from the Cairo Conservatoire in 2001 and joined the Cairo Opera Company, singing her way through several operas and vocal concerts. She had already interpreted the role of Amneris in past performances of Verdi's opera. Last week's performance was, however, different. She started attracting the audience's attention from her first duetto with Radames in Scene One of Act One. Suddenly she was not the hesitating, confused, uncertain young debutante who had tried so hard to give the best of her voice, of her acting, of herself in past performances. Suddenly she was the Diva, the princess who set out to get the man she loved. She sang the same lyrics, the same tunes she had sung before, but this time she did so with a different attitude: she was not playing her part but living it. She had forgotten Jolie Faizy and had turned into Amneris. Her movements were genuinely fluent, naturally spontaneous, in perfect harmony with the mood of the situation. She was singing without looking steadily at the Maestro for clues, and when she did, it was infrequently and unobtrusively. She was living in fear of losing Radames: "Woe, if another love should burn in his heart," she sang, feigning affection for Aida in Act Two: "I am your friend, you will have all from me," she chanted in wretched anguish and rage, visibly more and more involved in the plot. And then came Act Three as she entered the temple with the high- priest, to pray that Radames may give her his heart, as she had given hers "to him for ever". At the end of Act Three, when Amneris came out of the temple, seeing Radames with Aida and her father Amonasro, she was so surprised she could not help shouting "Traitor". That was the last time we saw Amneris in her richly embroidered costumes, with her crowns and jewels and all the paraphernalia befitting a Pharaonic princess. Until then she had been interesting; her sincerity, her spontaneity, her unaffected performance had attracted the attention of the audience to the extent that many decided to stay "at least for the first part of the next act". From then to the end of the opera, the mood changes: gone are the elated masses, the victorious soldiers, the triumphant warriors; even Aida and her father Amonasro are gone, while Radames is taken to the Judgement Hall, charged with treason. The stage is thus entirely left to Amneris, giving her the chance to win or lose the audience's favour, depending on her performance. This time she was great. The curtain opened onto the solemn forecourt of the Judgement Hall. Amneris in a long, black gown with long sleeves covering her arms, her disheveled, long black hair falling beautifully around her shoulders, walks nervously back and forth, bewailing Redames's treason, determined to save him. At this point, Jolie Faizy was no longer a princess, but a woman, with the natural reactions of an Egyptian woman in distress. She did not stand stoically around, giving solely vocal vent to her despair, but rushed angrily from one side of the hall to the other, wringing her hands, falling on her knees, begging Radames to exculpate himself. While on his way to the Hall she pleaded with him, offering to save his life if only he would renounce Aida; he didn't listen. In her anger and frustration, she went as far as cursing the priests: "You have done a wicked deed, infamous tigers, thirsting for blood, you outrage the earth and the gods, impious band, on you the vengeance of heaven will fall!" she cried, like a Mater Dolorosa, falling on her knees in front of the high-priest. Jolie Faizy had thrown Amneris to the winds, concentrating on the woman, singing not only with her voice, but principally with her heart, and winning the admiration of the entire audience. That night she really had stolen the show. Though quite imposing, the sets of the last scene should have given the impression of a closed tomb, with Amneris standing on the outer part of the vault, singing her prayer to Isis and ending with a very moving "Pace". The tomb, however, extended through the entire stage, with a triangular backdrop covering the wall, evocative of a pyramid, and a small, elevated platform at one end of the space, where Amneris stood, singing her last farewell to her beloved. The backdrop was rather impressive, with hieroglyphs covering the wall, but the presence of Amneris at one end, and Radames with Aida on the other, was somewhat disconcerting and did not fit with the generally traditional conception of the sets in the first three acts. Aida's two nights had, nevertheless, made a full house, with many foreign guests quite impressed by the performances and many Egyptians seeing the show for the first time loving it. Aida's first night had opened with soprano Iman Mustafa in the role of the heroine, mezzo soprano Hala El-Shabury as Amneris, Alfio Grasso as Amonasro, Mauro Pagano as Radames and Ibrahim Nagui as the messenger. The other performers were the same on both nights, at the end of which the house came down with cheering.
