"A surefire hit"
The Times
Introduction
English National Opera's major new production of Aida, is the Company's first new Aida in more than 20 years and sees ENO Music Director Edward Gardner working with the ENO Orchestra and Chorus to meet the full potential of Verdi's marvellous score. In her house debut renowned British fashion designer Zandra Rhodes presents a vibrant re-imagining of ancient Egypt with her colourful sets and costumes and Director Jo Davies and choreographer Jonathan Lunn collaborate on Verdi's masterpiece. The cast includes several leading British artists, including Claire Rutter who returns to the ENO in her favourite repertory to take on the title role. Following his performances of Figaro at ENO earlier this year, Iain Paterson sings his first Amonasro and American artist Jane Dutton makes her house and role debut singing Amneris. Following the success of her recent Pamina for ENO, Sarah-Jane Davies returns to sing the Grand Priestess.
The prodution is a co-production with Houston Grand Opera (where it opened in April 2007), the Norwegian National Opera and San Francisco Opera.
Cast press quotes
Claire Rutter / Title role
English National Opera / cond. Edward Gardner / dir. Jo Davies
"Above all, though, the evening was a triumph for Claire Rutter as Aida. This was a performance of international quality in a role that has proved a stumbling block for the great and the good of sopranos over the decades. But Rutter didn't drop a single stitch. She dominated the ensembles with her shining top, she phrased with unfailing musicality, and she floated the high ledger lines of that treacherous lament for her homeland in Act III with deceptive ease. Equally impressive was her farewell to life in the final scene."
Edward Seckerson, The Independent, November 2007
"Claire Rutter has a gorgeous high pianissimo and a lovely rounded tone."
Warwick Thompson, Bloomberg.com, November 2007
"Claire Rutter in the title role is beautifully secure and blazingly intense."
Tim Ashley, The Guardian, November 2007
"What lifted the heart was some ravishing singing from Claire Rutter in the title role. By the Nile Scene she had struck top form, producing a fluent line and golden tone which would grace any Opera House in the world!"
Rupert Christensen, The Daily Telegraph, November 2007
Jane Dutton / Amneris
"Amneris is the more overtly dramatic part, and Jane Dutton gave a big reading of it. She has all the big-breathed high-notes in her armoury, and also knows how to make her presence felt."
Alexander Campbell, Classicalsource.com, November 2007
"The American newcomer Jane Dutton gives a commanding portrayal of Amneris."
Richard Morrison, The Times, November 2007
"Jane Dutton is impressive as the pharaoh's daughter, Amneris, Aida's rival."
Barry Millington, The Evening Standard, November 2007
"Jane Dutton, as Amneris, produces some thrilling high notes toward the end of Act 4."
Warwick Thompson, Bloomberg.com, November 2007
Sarah-Jane Davies / Grand Priestess
"Some of the most powerful singing of the evening came from the wonderful Sarah-Jane Davies as the offstage High Priestess. Here was a sense of Verdian line and drama."
Musicalcriticm.com, November 2007
Iain Paterson / Amonasro
"The stand-out performance is from Iain Paterson as Aida's bullish father Amonasro. His sound is weighty, his delivery even, his vocal authority thrilling."
Warwick Thompson, Bloomberg.com
"The real surprise of the evening was Iain Paterson's Amonasro. His apparent move upward from bass to bass-baritone reveals him to have a superbly integrated and exciting Verdi voice, particularly at the top where it opened out and rang into the auditorium wonderfully nobly and freely. The dramatic temperature rose from the moment he opened his mouth."
Alexander Campbell, Classicalsource.com, November 2007
"Iain Paterson is outstanding…"
Richard Morrison, The Times, November 2007
"Iain Paterson's sterling Amonasro"
Rupert Christensen, The Daily Telegraph, November 2007
"Iain Paterson as Amonasro impressed most, a commanding voice and dramatic presence."
Intermezzo.com, November 2007
"…the finest singing comes from smaller roles such as Iain Paterson's Amonasro…"
Anthony Holden, The Guardian, November 2007
Zandra Rhodes gives Aida startling makeover
In her first project for British opera, Zandra Rhodes, the shocking grand old lady of British fashion, has designed outrageously coloured costumes for a new production of English National Opera's Aida, Verdi's Egyptian extravaganza with its vast chorus of Hebrew slaves.
Rhodes, who made her name with radical designs in London in the Swinging Sixties, is now 66 but has recently become a convert to opera. In the last few years she has designed costumes for The Magic Flute and The Pearl Fishers for San Diego Opera, where she now spends half the year. Her designs for Aida were unveiled at Houston Grand Opera, which is co-producing it, last week.
One critic there said Rhodes's designs were so brightly coloured "opera fans may wish to take their sunglasses". He went on: "Rhodes has given a flamboyant, storybook-on-LSD look."
Her theme is a dreamworld palette of gold, turquoise and ultramarine. Neither the Houston nor the London stage can accommodate the elephant sometimes used in outdoor performances. But Rhodes has represented the beast in swirling swathes of printed silks...
...In an interview for Houston Opera, Rhodes said that she had based her Aida designs on a range of Egyptian-styled clothes called Secrets of the Nile that she designed in 1986.
She said: "Egypt is one of the most amazing civilizations in the world, it was highly stylised, but I can add a touch of Zandra Rhodes style to it, and turn it into another sort of fantasy. Obviously, when Verdi wrote the opera, I don't think it was meant to be real anyway."
The designer said that she "fell in love with the project... it's taken me over".
She studied videos of previous Aidas. She said: "Most of them were in white nightdresses. But I thought 'Why would they come to me?' If there's already one in white nightdresses, that isn't what I should be doing. I should re-think what the characters look like. "I did a collection in London, and then when the opportunity to design Aida came up, it was a case that I could go back to the silk screens I made, with the Queen's wings and with the Egyptian leopard that was modelled on the one I saw drawn in one of the temples in the Valley of the Kings. One thing led to the other from there.
"It's got to add my touch of interpretation, my touch of fantasy. I've linked to the fact that there's this wonderful eye in Egyptian culture. It is a wonderful symbol, and that has worked its way into the sets."
Extracts from interview in The Telegraph, April 2007
Claire Rutter production image by Tristram Kenton