Every year, the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra highlights its season with a full opera in concert form to the delight of its audience. This year’s selection, Aida, was slated to be conducted by the orchestra’s Music Director Emeritus, Zubin Mehta.
Unfortunately, Maestro Mehta’s health concerns kept him at home in Los Angeles this year, and Maestro Vincenzo Milletari, the conductor Mehta and the IPO chose to fill his role, was excellent.
Youthful, graceful, and very competent, with a cast of top singers, he took the audience, via the plot outline written by the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette and with the Italian libretto written by Antonio Ghislanzoni, to ancient Egypt and its unique rituals and customs.
The sounds of the Orient, the rhythms of the Middle East, the celestial sounds of two harps, open sonorities, and beautiful music filled the score.
Aida is a grand opera replete with arias whose melodies soar and triumphal scenes that are filled with heralding brass trumpets, percussion, and chorus.
Triumphal scenes contrast with intimate moments
These scenes contrast dramatically with the intimate moments created by Giuseppe Verdi, which are played by the harps, strings, and woodwinds, and, of course, a storyline that ends in bittersweet sadness. Aida is a story of contrasts within a triangle of love.
Aida is an Ethiopian princess who was captured by the Egyptian army during a war led by the military hero Radamès, who falls in love with her.
Matters are further complicated by the fact that the daughter of the Egyptian king, Princess Amneris, also has amorous feelings for Radamès, and jealousy, and anger erupts between the two women. When fully staged, Aida has a cast of hundreds with singers, sets, costumes, dancers, and even horses parading across the stage.
In contrast, the IPO performance in concert form is a different, beautiful experience.
With only the orchestra, singers, and chorus onstage, one may enjoy the sheer beauty of the music without distraction.
The teleprompter over the stage provided not only clarity of who is who and when they appear, but also a fine translation of the libretto. The acting required by the singers was at a minimal level but consistently done with finesse as they portrayed their characters’ emotions.
Soprano Zarina Abaeva (Aida) shone with a voice that was expressive and pure, and she has a captivating sweetness and purity of sound, whether she relates her love for Radamès, lamenting the fate of her people, or expressing anger at the complexity of her situation.
Her aria, O Patria Mea, in which she longs for her homeland and faces difficult choices, was an example of beauty and emotion. Mezzo-soprano Zinaida Tsarenko is her rival as the Egyptian Princess Amneris. Her part not only showcased the fine quality of her voice but also her emotive range, spanning jealousy, love, anger, and, finally, sadness and supplication concerning Radamès’s fate.
With each appearance, she sang superbly while mastering her character. Tenor Jorge Puerta was the heroic Radamès to Abaeva’s Aida.
His aria, Celeste Aida, brought cheers from the audience as he expressed his tender love for the enslaved Aida and hopes for victory not only in the upcoming war but also for Aida’s hand.
The trio Vieni, o diletta, appressati for Amneris, Aida, and Radamès was a masterful moment of musical interplay, highlighting with vocal brilliance the rivalry between the two female characters and the steadfastness of love of Radamès for Aida. The voice of the distinguished tenor, Ariunbaatar Ganbaatar, was of operatic quality as Amonasro, king of Ethiopia and Aida’s father.
In this listener’s humble opinion, his presence could have been stronger, particularly during his interaction with Aida, when urging her into intrigue to find out the route the Egyptian army would take into battle.
This is a pivotal moment in the story and was a bit stilted and lacking in collaboration.
The impressive voice of bass Denis Sedov as the king of Egypt was a surprise.
His fine, deep voice is encased in a youthful, slight figure, yet he has the deportment and sound of a king.
All in all, Maestro Milletari, soloists, orchestra, and the Israel Opera Chorus shone in Aida at the IPO 2025.