No matter how many times Opera Aida, conducted by Italian conductor Marcello Mottadelli, is put on here, it still retains its charm. Maybe the secret lies in the fact that the themes and melodies have a unique, Egyptian flavour. Aida was first performed by the Egyptian tenor Hassan Kami in one of many international performances set in the Pharaonic monuments of Giza and Luxor. This topic has been tackled many times, so I'll focus on the some of the new things I noticed this time, including the set and the wholly Egyptian visual effects. The décor by set designer Mahmoud Haggag and special lighting effects by Yasser Shaalan were both very professionally done, impressing the audience and heightening the drama on stage. This was especially true of the great scenes in this opera: Act 1 Scene 2 (set in the Isis Temple), every scene in Act 3 and Act 4 Scene 2, which is considered to be the greatest of all. Abdel-Moneim Kamel did a wonderful job of directing the show, skilfully creating an integrated whole. The theatrics were also very skilful, but there were some shortcomings. The King's messenger performed very poorly, while the costumes, suitable enough with their Roman and Pharaonic style for the temple dancers, weren't suitable for Aida herself, played by soprano Iman Moustafa, the heroine of this opera for many years now. Apart from her costumes, Iman's singing and acting were magnificent, while both bassbaritone Reda el-Wakil and Abdel Wahab el-Sayyed, who played the role of the King, were equally magnificent. As for the German mezzo-soprano Christine Knorren, who played Amonasro, one of the major characters with deep inner dimensions and a Verdi creation full of contradictions, she was also very impressive, especially in the court scene and in her dialogues with Aida in the first and second acts. Meanwhile, Radames, the army chief played by tenor Marc Heller was superb in the final act, although it had taken all of the first and second acts to warm up; his costumes were also inappropriate. Amonasro, the Ethiopian King, POW and father of Aida, was played by baritone Robert Hayman. Despite his strong voice, he didn't really understood the role of Amonasro, one of Verdi's best creations. The music seemed slow and weak, more like a dress rehearsal, while there was no need for the motion accompanying the musical introduction, because it only distracts our attention from Verdi's wonderful work. Let's hope these minor faults will have been ironed out next time Aida is performed.
