Review of Verdi: Aida

Introduction

That`s Aye-ee-da, not Aider as in First... And not Ayesha as in "she who must be obeyed". This is the one set in Egypt about the Ethiopian Princess. An Egyptian general, Rhadames, falls in love with his captive, Ethiopian princess Aida. This is seen as an act of treason and he is sentenced to death. Egyptian princess Amneris also loves him, and offers to save his life if he marries her. He turns her down and he and Aida are sealed in a subterranean vault to die.

This cheery tale was written by Giuseppi Verdi to open the Italian Theatre in Cairo in 1871. St Jacob-Park football stadium in Basel, Switzerland is the setting for this enormous Companions Opera staging of the opera. This live recording of the performance involves hundreds of extras, animals and even fireworks.

Video

This is the big let-down. Although it says on the box "Aspect Ratio: 16:9", it isn`t anamorphic. That`s right, it`s an ugly letterbox presentation so you`re not even watching a full 4:3 screenful. What`s worse, you have to manually set your widescreen tv to 14:9 to expand the picture because at full 16:9 zoom, the subtitles are unreadable.

The coverage of the performance is in the style of the coverage of a sports event rather than an attempt to make a proper video version. There are moments before the sun goes down and the darkness obscures the Basel arena that are surreally reminiscent of the unfunny bits of "It`s A Knockout" with people wandering around in funny costumes in front of blue sports arena seating.

Audio

The sound comes in three flavours, Dolby Digital 2.0, 5.1 surround and DTS. Sadly all the soundtracks suffer from being live performance recordings and fail to give the ambiance of really being there.

Features

There are subtitles in English, German, Italian and Spanish; a short (17 minute) making-of piece showing preparations for the performance; and a desultory photogallery.

Conclusion

This could have been stupendous. It isn`t. Rather than being transported to Egypt for a romantic tragedy, you`re only too aware of it taking place in a football stadium.