Amneris is secretly enamored of Radames and as the saga unfolds, it is galling to Her Royal Highness that despite her airs, wealth and power, Radames prefers (what appears to be) a lowly slave woman over a princess. Radames is clandestinely in love with the title character, Aida (Texan soprano Latonia Moore), who is the captured Ethiopian slave of the Egyptian princess Amneris (Tennessee soprano Melody Moore, who previously played the title role in LA Op’s Tosca). In a nutshell, Aida projects the struggle of the eternal love triangle onto the realm of realpolitik, as the dramatis personae include the high and mighty, set against the background of war, and the stakes are larger than life. (Beware what you wish for! Because you just might get it – and then some!) In one of opera’s greatest ironies, Radames’s benevolent plea for mercy for the Ethiopian POWs proves to be his undoing. During this triumphal scene, which includes the throng singing (translated from the Italian), “Glory to Egypt and to Isis,” Radames (florid Floridian tenor Russell Thomas, an LA Opera Artist in Residence since 2020), the commander who has led the Egyptian victors and is being feted by the exuberant crowd and members of the power elite, is granted one wish by the King/Pharoah (Chinese bass Peixin Chen). Verdi’s fantastic fanfare and cascade of sound melds the best of orchestral, operatic strains with the rousing tempo of marching and martial music. This is truly grand opera at its grandest, with an onstage spectacle and composer Giuseppe Verdi’s transcendent music which, if it fails to stir you, means you simply don’t have a soul to be stirred (or shaken). Amidst fluttering banners and brandished weaponry, there are dancing girls, soldiers, priests, citizens, royalty and prisoners of war as the ancient Egyptians celebrate their returning, victorious army, who have just vanquished the Ethiopian invaders (as in ACT II, SCENE 2 of the original libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni – but in LA Opera’s version directed by Francesca Zambello, this colossal triumphal scene takes place at the end of the first act, before the curtain drops to signal intermission). Right from the get go I must gush that in terms of sheer scale – optically and sonically – as staged by LA Opera, Aida’s scene set outside of the city walls wherein the masses are assembled to all hail the conquering heroes is among the most magnificent sequences I’ve ever experienced at a live theater in my entire life.

Aida opera