Aida - La Scala Details

A Good Introduction to Opera

Fantastic stage, costume and cast.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Listen to it but look away

The singing is great and the music is beautiful but the costumes, hair , make-up and sets are absolutely over the top to the point of distraction- whole pyramids slide about and sweeping desserts hove into view. Luciano Pavarotti is the romantic lead, made -up like a cross between a geisha and a sumo wrestler and so enormous he can barely move- its a wonder they did not set him on the same sort of hydraulics the Sphinx was on- and everyone has to compete with these outlandish things to get their scenes across. But you rent opera cds to hear them more than see them, and this is certainly well worth hearing.