Richard Kopp
These essays offer different ways of understanding what the listener may find to be enjoyable in any opera. They were originally prepared to be included in programs distributed at opera performances, thus the title of this book. NOTES ON THIS EVENING’S OPERA. Audiences have commented positively on the content and easy-reading style which the author has used in the notes.
Richard Kopp has been associated with Opera At Florham (Madison, New Jersey) sincethe founding of the Company in 1982. He has been stage director, translator for librettos, and initiator of supertitles, as well as presenter of operalogues for each production. His lectures, entitled Discovering Opera, have been well received. He is also Host of the Violetta DuPont Vocal Competition, which attracts contestants internationally. This book presents program notes which he has prepared for performances by the Company.
The musical element in AIDA is, of course, what accounts for the remarkable success of the opera. As he does with each of his operas, Verdi adds or develops an artistic element which was not present in earlier works. In RIGOLETTO, the chorus is an integral part of the action and of the musical background (as in the storm scene); in DON CARLO there is the grand scene of the auto da fe, In AÏDA the orchestra plays a featured role rather than supporting the singers as was its traditional function. AÏDA brings together all of Verdi’s creative genius that we recognize up to that point in his life. It has everything that an opera should have: glorious tunes that are sung, danced and marched to; set pieces (arias, duets, ensembles) which permit all the voice ranges to display the excitement which they can create. There are seven scene changes: indoors, outdoors, night and day. Love is evidenced in different ways: the eternal triangle, jealousy, filial love, paternal love. There is class consciousness: Aida is a slave as well as a princess, Radames becomes worthy of the princess of Egypt by proving that he is a great general. Religion is shown to maintain the stability of the society: Ramfis, in his wisdom, prevails on the king to keep Aida and her father as hostages. And justice does prevail: the traitor is punished after a trial and the leader of the enemy is killed in flight. Finally, Aida is dead. And peace reigns: Amneris chants, “Pace, pace, pace,” as the priests invoke their god and the curtain falls.
Those characters who fail to recognize the beauty of love do survive. What does the future hold for the disappointed princess of Egypt? And Ramfis will probably continue being indifferent to the spiritual needs of his followers, a situation reflecting Verdi’s own dim view of religious leaders in nineteenth century Italy.
AÏDA is Verdi’s most popular opera; it is arguably the quintessential “grand opera”. One can always add a few elephants to the triumphal scene, but that is not in Verdi’s plan. As in all of his operas, including the final two which he would not compose for another sixteen years, OTELLO and FALSTAFF, he retells the touching story of beautiful people caught in society’s mean and destructive webs; they could be Manrico and Leonora, Otello and Desdemona, Alfredo and Violetta. At this performance they are Radames and Aïda.
