Monday, February 26, 2007

AIDA review

The show was great. I had great seats too. A little off to the side, but I didn't miss any of the action - from what I could tell. I've never seen the Broadway staging, and I heard it was pretty good. But this was great as well. Very good dancing. It was staged by a Alvin Ailey choreographer and was amazing stuff. Some of it wasn't appropriate for the song - at least for "Another Pyramid", but it was visually stunning.

There were understudies on for Amneris, Zoser and Mereb and all seemed very experienced. I'm sure that with a tour they probably get a lot of opportunity to go on. The Zoser was a little young (he's supposed to be Radames father), but he had a great voice. I heard over the boards that the original guy is not that great. The costumes were ok, not really Egyptian looking - more contemporary. Ah, I think sometimes recreating the original staging would have been better - but this was satisfactory. The cast was excellent overall...especially Aida, Radames, Amneris, Nebehka and the ensemble too.

I always wanted to see if I could do this show. And with the choreography I saw last night, I would have to say....NO. But who knows, maybe the original staging is more attainable.

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