The "sheep's head" warship set sail again, full of magnificent and epic temperament
The National Centre for the Performing Arts' version of "Aida" is back in shock
Reporter Gao Qian
In the soft and sad prelude, the curtain is raised, on the stage, the sand sea is boundless, the river bay flows, the majestic city-state emerges from a distance like a mirage, and the desolate and magnificent epic temperament comes to the face... From November 11st to 1th, "Aida" will once again appear on the stage of the National Center for the Performing Arts, with magnificent momentum and shocking spirit.
Set in the ancient Egyptian pharaohs, Verdi's opera "Aida" has always been famous for its "grandeur", and in 2015, the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) launched this "grand opera" as the opening opera, and the conductor Zubin Mehta himself took the helm, and the grand occasion is still unforgettable.
Chinese and foreign artists join forces to create legendary group portraits
Renato Palumbo, the conductor of this round, knows the essence of Italian opera. As a Verdi expert, Palumbo has absolute confidence in "Aida", and under his leadership, the performance of the NCPA Orchestra and Chorus is majestic, and the choir plays a certain extent in important mass scenes such as "Rise up and march to the holy Nile" and "Glory belongs to Egypt".
Verdi portrays the main characters with great intensity, and their personalities and psychology are full of drama and impact. The heroine Aida is one of the most pleasing characters in Verdi's opera, and the soprano Suzanne Bronzini and Sun Xiuwei who play Aida in arias such as "I wish you a victorious return" and "The blue sky of the motherland" try their best to show Aida in the dilemma between her lover and father, between her private relationship and her family and country.
Verdi was also "merciless" to the tenor, and only a few minutes after the opening of the play, the first aria was sung by the male protagonist Radames, and before he had fully warmed up, the heroic tenors of Jorge de León and Wang Chong won warm applause from the audience.
In addition, the Egyptian princess Aneris, who is struggling with various emotions such as admiration, suspicion, hatred, and jealousy, is full and three-dimensional, and the mezzo-soprano Anastasia Bordeleva and Niu Shasha show an accurate understanding of the role; Dalibor Janisch, Aida's father Amonaslo played by Zhang Yang, Pharaoh played by Guan Zhijing, and the chief priestess played by Zhang Wenqin also have quite wonderful performances, and they jointly created a vivid group portrait of the characters in that legendary era that went by.
A team of 400 people worked together on the "Grand Opera"
In terms of stage presentation, the National Centre for the Performing Arts' version of "Aida" has achieved the ultimate in "bigness" -
In the first act, the majestic ship slowly advances, and the temple rises impressively, almost filling the vast space of the opera house stage;
The solemn and solemn atmosphere reaches a breathtaking peak in the famous "Triumph" scene in the second act, when six Egyptian trumpets are sounded the well-known "Triumphal March", loot is displayed in turn, and in the grand celebratory procession, the "sheep's head" warship sails out of the darkness and carries the hero Radamès back, which is particularly shocking;
In the epilogue stage, Radamès, who leaked the military plane, is tried under the huge wall of the mummy, and the figure stands, the tone is gloomy, and the sense of majestic oppression comes to his face...
"In terms of the background of the story and the musical temperament, when 'Aida' is staged around the world, the scene is usually grand." Li Bin, the relevant person in charge of the stage technology department of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, said. In this version of Aida, the master of stage design Ezio Frigelio used his inspiration and ideas to the fullest, and the scale of the work is at the forefront of the many productions of the National Centre for the Performing Arts: "The set of all four acts usually takes four days to be transported to the theater, and it takes four to five days to assemble and set the stage. ”
Li Bin revealed that the big ship that crossed the Nile in the first act weighed 10 tons, and it took 70 staff members to push it from the side curtain onto the stage; "Aida"'s iconic "sheep's head" The height of the mast of the warship is as high as 12.5 meters, and after entering the core area of the stage, it is raised as a whole by 4 meters; the mummified wall of the trial of Radamès is sandblasted, and the wall pieces weigh 2.5 tons, plus 20 actors standing on it, the whole needs to use 6 booms that can bear a weight of 750 kilograms to achieve the artistic effect of hanging in the air; in order to restore the customs of ancient Egypt with a texture, 1 ton of yellow sand is paved on the stage, and the surrounding gaps are carefully closed by the staff to prevent the sand from seeping and interfering with the operation of the machinery...
Every time "Aida" is performed, the stage and the surrounding area of the opera house are completely occupied, "as if it has become a Huarong Dao game." Li Bin said metaphorically. Normally, an opera requires the coordination of three to four stage managers, but "Aida" requires nine, who accurately calculate the lifting, pushing and pulling of each set, and once one link is wrong, it is difficult for subsequent performances to be accurately connected. ”
In the 2015 years since its premiere in 8, "Aida" has been staged three times, and the frequency of rehearsals is not intensive, and technology is certainly a major difficulty, but in Li Bin's view, this real "big drama" also needs to wait for a suitable time. In this round of performances, Renato Palumbo, the leading lineup of domestic and foreign singers, the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra and Choir worked together, and nearly 400 artists and behind-the-scenes workers filled in the matching flesh and soul for the magnificent production, which is the charm of "Aida" that truly deserves the name of "Grand Opera".
The magnificent scene of "Aida". Photo by Wang Xiaojing
Source: Beijing Daily