Into Egypt

by David Shengold

Verdi's spiffily grand Aida is (like, say, Kind of Blue or Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band) the kind of cultural icon everyone should experience and anyone could enjoy. Its story is simple and compelling and the tunes and orchestration timelessly beguiling; the "Orientalizing" plot and music had considerable subsequent resonance in both film and musical comedy. The Opera Company's current version delivers the basic goods largely due to strong orchestral and choral work, showing heartening improvement under Corrado Rovaris and Elizabeth Braden respectively.

Nightmare struck when flu felled romantic leads Angela Brown and Renzo Zulian opening night (Feb. 11). But the show went on, and pretty well. Locally raised Lisa Daltirus took Brown's place with aplomb — and a far lighter instrument. A lovely actress, who sang the role promisingly at Opera Delaware last season, she offered the part's lyric portions beautifully, but at Aida's stress points she had to push her voice (and luck) in the larger Academy. Many young black sopranos have paid dearly for accepting Aida in large venues too soon; Daltirus' talent and accomplishment deserve better. How about an OCP Bohéme for her?

Dongwon Shin, a Korean tenor in his fourth year at AVA, bravely made his professional operatic debut on one day's notice, more than holding his place, if still a work in progress as a singer and actor. Shin's always mustered great, ringing top notes; his studies have yielded a bit more musical finesse. Still, as the evening wore on, his Radames encountered trouble sustaining middle-range dynamics. Sharper Italian diction would help him phrase — also true of the otherwise sensational young bass Morris Robinson, a welcome debutant as the king of Egypt. Unexpectedly youthful, slight co-stars didn't flatter Barbara Dever's veteran Amneris, very good in soft passages, edgy otherwise; while a seasoned Verdian, Dever lacks the temperament his great roles demand. Gregg Baker's awesome stage command and oaken baritone stirred things up as Aida's kingly father. Carolyn Betty's high priestess sounded lovely.

Dramatically, Robert Driver provides pillars, iconic Egyptian statuary, well-muscled extras and few surprises — in this case a plus, as Aida yields well to such Classic Comics treatment, and the production cannily evokes sufficient spectacle and mystery through uncomplicated means. (Surely, though, OCP's audience is sophisticated enough to forego its trademark deployment of frisky tots in every show: Here a quartet of moppets splashed and romped merrily through Amneris' boudoir scene.) Matthew Neenan's ambitious choreography hewed an effective line between the celebratory and the violent aspects of the alluring music Verdi provides, lapsing only twice briefly into "Walk Like an Egyptian" kitsch.

AIDA Through Feb. 27, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Academy of Music, Broad and Locust sts., 215-893-1999