Verdi: Aida (2-CD) – Anja Harteros, Jonas Kaufmann
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Item: 5054197640810
Description
Verdi: Aida (2-CD) – Anja Harteros, Jonas Kaufmann
Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Artists: Anja Harteros, Jonas Kaufmann, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Ludovic Tezier, Erwin Schrott, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Conductor: Sir Antonio Pappano
Number of Discs: 2
Label: Warner Classics
Release Date: August 19, 2023
Probably the best recent available recording of Aida, with the finest possible cast of singers and a wonderful conductor. “Who needs elephants when the music sounds this good?” declared The Times of this milestone recording event in Rome with its “luxurious, surely never-to-be-repeated cast.”
Once again proving his mastery of Italian opera, Sir Antonio Pappano moves between sumptuous grandeur and touching intimacy.
History
Aida
This grandest of grand operas, Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida features an epic backdrop for what is in essence an intimate love story set in ancient Egypt packed with magnificent choruses, dramatic arias, complex ensembles and elaborate ballets. The opera is, at its core, a profound exploration of the conflict of private emotion and public duty.
The score of this 4-act opera is a sophisticated example of Italian Romanticism as heard in the “Celeste Aida” right at the beginning of Act I, her impassioned “Ritorna vincitor!” that follows and her great internal journey, “Qui Radamès verrà! O patria mia” in Act III. At the center of Act II, is the great Triumphal Scene, which ranks among opera’s most celebrated moments.
Notable performances include a 1955 production conducted by Tullio Serafin with Maria Callas as Aida and Richard Tucker as Radamès, as well as a 1959 performance conducted by Herbert van Karajan with Renata Tebaldi as Aida and Carlo Bergonzi as Radamès.
Today the work holds a central place in the operatic canon, receiving performances every year around the world.
At the Metropolitan Opera alone, Aida has been performed more than 1,500 times since 1886 and was presented again in the Met’s 2018–19 season.
Aida was commissioned by and first performed at Cairo’s Khedivial Opera House on December 24, 1871.
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