Ho!  I agree entirely with Il Grande Inquisitor regarding the Busseto Aida.  This fine performance I found meaningful and sincere with principals displaying a real love for the work.  The "over the top" productions seem shallow in comparison. 
Cheers.

And the whole of Act II     But I agree, 18 mins seems an underestimate (I think it depends who the producer has done things... I have seen Aida being dragged around in chains from the opening curtain onwards).

It's one of the few operas where I actually like the opera ballet, and miss it when it's cut.

I think singers tend of the times they're 'on' (and not biting their nails in a dressing-room)...  I think a lot of productions really play-up Ameris's role and keep her 'on' nearly all the time, so Aidas can get a mite jealous

I once did a stripped-down version for touring to small spaces (in order to get into regions where there's no opera theatre) and I must plead guilty as charged to the above...it was entirely Amneris's show.  But we only had a cast of five anyhow   Probably the predominance of Amneris's involvement remains over-emphasised as a result

Her 'commentary' during that final duet is a master-stroke, isn't it?  A lesser composer wouldn't have thought of it.  It's also very neat as a story-teller's device...we began with Amneris, and we end with her..but she has moved-on as a person, and can forgive Radames.

The whole thing had to be done in a tiny space and without any changes of scenery - that was the "spec" for the show, over which I had no control.  So yes, I used pre-recorded clips for a lot of it...  the idea was to show how far we are the passive receivers of news from the TV,  yet often what is broadcast is "spun" for public consumption.  There were just two "spaces" - Amneris's hotel-room, and the corridor outside it (in which a lift provided one of the "entrances", and the lift itself provided a tiny third "space", rather like the "revealing-chamber" of a Jacobean theatre).  And of course there were some sizeable cuts - we never claimed we had presented the whole of AIDA with the resources we had available on such a tour.  I approached it from almost the other way - not "what should we cut?", but "how much can we preserve?", considering that the whole idea of doing the "grandest" of Grand Operas in such circs was fairly unconventional to start with    The set also had to include lighting, as most of the places it played weren't theatres, and had no lighting of their own. 

I ought to point out that I didn't do any of this because I especially wanted to take the scalpel to Verdi's work or thought it gained anything from such treatment - the whole project was done in order to take live opera to areas and regions where there was little or no provision (for example, the West Country).   The decision was taken early in the project (not only by me, but by those who kicked it into play and funded it) that we would do better with "workshop versions" of well-known main works than obscure chamber pieces (I remember Cimarosa's THE SECRET MARRIAGE and Rimsky-Korsakov's MOZART & SALIERI were on the short-list). 


Sounds vaguely like PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM, but it's Bogey who pops out there, not Amonasro   If you would like me to do an AIDA in which Bogey is Amonasro,  please let my agent know?    I've often thought that anyone preparing to do Amneris could learn a lot from watching Joan Crawford in MILDRED PIERCE...

I recently read that Ricordi are bringing out chamber-orchestra versions of lots of grand opera pieces (clever way for them to keep in-copyright versions circulating!). Don't know if they've quite gone so far as Reiner's Aida though.

Reiner - this brings back happy memories of performances in the 1980w by Scottish Opera's erstwhile outreach group, Opera-go-Round, which gave performances on a similar scale in village halls in the Highlands and Islands - including a memorable Don Carlos and a searing Jenufa (also with Linda McLeod giving her all as the Kostelnicka - what an extraordinary artist).  Again, packed village halls - I used to arrange trips north to visit relatives in that part of the world to coincide with the opera, and it was a talking-point in the village for weeks beforehand and afterwards - and , as you say, singers and audience in the sort of proximity that was all but inconceivable in a big house.

Coming back to London to the next routine revival at the ROH or ENO, the difference was often all too obvious ....

This new production of Aida seems to have garnered some critical acclaim. Gramophone made it their DVD of the month and the BBC Music Mag also had a rave review. Interesting cast - I haven't heard Nina Stemme in Verdi before, only her Isolde. Never been convinced by Salvatore Licitra; neither had the late Alan Blyth either by the sound of it...'at last fulfilling his potential' is the promising phrase used.

http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product//BAC022.htm

Also, if you remember the big second night walkout by Alagna at La Scala last December, here's a chance to find out how his first and only performance went:

http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product//0743209.htm

Now, I somehow doubt that Decca will have included the opening to the second night as a DVD extra, but if they wanted to attract extra sales....

Probably one to add to the rental lists in the first instance.