Product Description

The luxurious Franco Zeffirelli production, live from La Scala, which marked his return to the house after more than 20 years! With an image up to six times sharper than conventional DVD and superior high-definition sound, Blu-Ray lets you watch opera and ballet performances from the front row of the theater. Experience every detail, no matter how small, in the highest quality possible. With five times the memory of standard DVDs, Blu-Ray is a completely new way to experience the theater at home.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10813 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-11-18
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Classical, Color
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: German, English, French, Italian, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 158 minutes

Amazon.com
This December 2006 Aida from La Scala offers some fine singing but as often happens in a Franco Zeffirelli staging, the scenery and directing vie with its purely musical aspects. Little wonder, given the sumptuous sets, spectacular crowd scenes, and the masses of scenic and acting details more common to a movie than a stage performance. Zeffirelli populates the La Scala stage with enough statuary to fill the Egyptian wing of a large museum. Huge busts of Pharaonic figures loom above the singers, a wall covering the back of the stage is full of detailed relief figures drawn from ancient Egyptian relics, and when singers, dancers, chorus, and extras populate the stage during the Triumphal March, it seems like all of Thebes turned out for the celebration. The Nile scene is relatively pared down while neatly suggesting the mystery of the scene and focusing attention on the dramatic confrontations of the principal actors. By the time we arrive at the final tomb scene, the dying hero and heroine are seen through the darkness while above them, the priests and priestesses of the Pharoah’s court invoke their deity. But while the detailed stage direction and sets are important, any Aida requires four world-class singers to make its maximum impact. La Scala, as befits a season-opening performance, fields a worthy crew. Top honors go to the eponymous heroine, for Violeta Urmana demonstrates a soprano voice impressive in its evenness, her ease at the top of her range and her rich bottom notes. She won’t make you forget her famed predecessors in the role, but she’s definitely worth hearing. The same might be said of Roberto Alagna, the Radames. He left the production after the performances filmed here because of audience booing, but aside from a strained Celeste Aida his singing here is quite good, with sensitive phrasing and some lovely soft singing in the Tomb Scene.

The Amneris, Ildiko Komlosi, dominates the stage in her scenes as the imperious Pharaoh’s daughter. Like her rival for Radames’ affections, Aida, she won’t erase memories of other fine Amneris’ but she’s a definite plus in this production. Less so is Carlo Guelphi, the Amonastro, rough of voice and generalized in his singing and acting. Smaller parts are capably done and the La Scala Orchestra is alertly led by Ricardo Chailly. He paces the opera with vigor, exposes details of the score often overlooked, and draws some ravishing playing from the strings.The ballet sequences are done with a Hollywoodish touch that fits the production, but the video direction of Patrizia Carmine will draw some boos from home viewers. There are frequent fades to swirling, out-of-focus details of stage décor, veils and materials, accelerating in later scenes to become annoying distractions, especially since they often occur in mid-aria, sabotaging the musical flow and diverting attention from the singers. Still, this is a worthy production of a great opera.--Dan Davis

Aida is an all-regions 2-disc set in 16:9 ratio. Sound options include PCM Stereo and DTS 5.1 Surround. Subtitles include English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Chinese.

The New York Times
"A dashing stage presence...he [Alagna] excites audiences and is the real thing: a stylish French tenor."

Customer Reviews

Extremely Disappointing
I was looking for a modern replacement of my old Met Opera DVD of Aida and, as someone who likes the spectacle of Grand Opera, decided to buy this Franco Zeffirelli directed version from La Scala. I noted that a number of the reviewers had mentioned the superimposed images and fade-ins and fade-outs employed by the director and how much it had annoyed them. However, I thought they were probably being too subjective and I couldn't imagine that a video director would have been given so much of a free hand that it could detract from Zeffirelli's production. How wrong I was! In the triumphal march in Act 2 the stage is full of people, the costumes are opulent, the props are magnificent, the orchestra under Chailly is building up to a climax and yet Patrizia Carmine thinks that she can improve on all of this by adding dissolves through drapes and superimposing close-ups of trumpets; not just once, but again and again.
There is so much to like about this production and I no doubt will watch it occasionally, but it could have been so much better without the interference of the video director. I would go so far as to suggest that all might not be lost and the DVD could possibly be re-released without all the offensive and unnecessary additions. How novel that might be, a non-directors cut of the opera.

Very distracting Video Direction!!!
Beautiful Aida production by Zefferelli at La Scala Milan. This production is a little over done but beautifully set. The singers are amazing except that I found Alagna's infamous aria "Dolce Aida" to be sung in an almost forced and yelling voice. So far, I have just watched the Acts 1&2 first DVD, and so far I can tell you that you will be dissapointed by the anoying fading of pictures throught the video. This is done in a manner that you want to scream and say stop doing that!!!Just focus on the characters and lets enjoy the performance in a way that a seating patron there was enjoying it. By, the way the ballet at the end of Act 2 was very sexy and beautifully danced. 4 stars for the singing 5 stars for the ballet and 5 star for the sets and costumes. 0 star for the video direction.

Disappointing
This potentially wonderful production has been ruined by inappropiate zooming, transitions, panning, close-ups of performers and even horns. The video editing is dreadful and distracts from the beauty of the performers and the performance. This DVD could be used in a course for videographers and producers as an example of "How not to do it".