“Abandon All Logic, Ye Who Enter!”

It may strike some as frivolous to distort the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri to make a point about the recent broadcast of a performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida in the Great Performances at the Met series. However, as I watched the narrative unfold, I found it hard to resist an often-invoked fable in which logic takes it on the chin. It involves an encounter between a frog and a scorpion trying to cross the Nile River. Ironically, one of the better versions of this tale was quoted by Shai Baitel in an article he wrote for The Jerusalem Post back in February of 2011. Here is his version of the text:

A frog and the scorpion, met one day on the bank of the River Nile, which they both wanted to cross. The frog offered to carry the scorpion over on his back provided the scorpion promised not to sting him. The scorpion agreed so long as the frog would promise not to drown him. They mutually agreed to the deal and started to cross the river. Half-way to the other bank the scorpion stung the frog with his venom. "Why did you do that?" gasped the frog, as it was dying. "Why?" replied the scorpion, "I couldn’t help it. This is the Middle East.”

Screen shot of Radamès leading his troops to report to the King of Egypt on their latest victory

Where Aida is concerned, one could modify this story with a punch line about grand opera, rather than the Middle East. With apologies to William Shakespeare, Aida (soprano Angel Blue) and Radamès (tenor Piotr Beczała) are “star-crossed lovers” from the very first scene of the very first act when Radamès sings “Celeste Aida” (heavenly Aida). After that, it is downhill for both of them, culminating in slow death in a sealed-up vault. However, one of the more interesting elements of the staging by Gary Halvorson is that Amneris (mezzo Judit Kutasi), daughter of the King of Egypt (who planned her marriage to Radamès), reconciles herself to the fate of her own wedding that would never happen.

To be fair, most opera-lovers go to Aida for the spectacle. In that context, Halvorson definitely knew how to dish it out to the fans. More often than not, the stage is filled with not only the principal characters but also a plethora of both dancers and choral singers. The good news is that, working with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Halvorson could establish just the right pace at which each episode would lead seamlessly into the next. As a result, what could have been a here-we-go-again performance emerged at a pace through which attention could be maintained without boredom ever overtaking it.

Would I save the video I recorded for future viewing? Probably not. Once is enough, but at least I was not overtaken by restlessness!