Soprano Angel Blue makes her long-awaited Met role debut as the Ethiopian princess torn between love and country, one of | dG1fNEtUNEZ2ZnY2V1k
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00:00Auguste Mariette was a French Egyptologist working in the 19th century and he discovered
00:27some very important tombs and Mariette went to Verdi with a concept for a story that he
00:35had come up with on his own whilst digging around in all of these ruins and that is the
00:42story of Aida.
00:44The interesting thing also is that he designed the original production and designed all the
00:51costumes as well and all of that stuff we can look at.
00:56The genesis of this story set in ancient Egypt was actually a 19th century concept from an
01:06archaeologist so we thought that might be a beautiful window into this world so that
01:12the archaeologists coming in, discovering this tomb, reading the hieroglyphs on the
01:19walls and letting the story come to life through their eyes.
01:25Mark Grimmer, with whom I very happily collaborated with on the projections for Marnie back in
01:332018, and his whole team is great, I thought that they would be ideal to be able to project
01:43images on top of the work that Christine Jones has designed so that we see them and they
01:52sort of come to life as though the hieroglyphics were coming to life in order to tell the story.
01:59Susan Hilferty, who's the great costume designer I've worked with so many times, she's going
02:06to be creating our version of ancient Egypt so she's brilliantly come up with an ancient
02:16Egypt that is completely recognisable but also singular to this vision.
02:21This is going to be grand, don't worry, we're committed, the triumphal march will be triumphant.
02:28But Aida, that's the great paradox of it and I think the great genius of that piece is
02:33that aside from that particular scene, it's probably the most intimate of all of Verdi's operas.
02:43I think Verdi is a master of the drama, of the dramatic line, he's the master of time
02:50and he's the master of not using too many things to say what he wants to say.
02:58It's very intimate, it's very small, it's almost a chamber opera at its core and yet,
03:05you know, by virtue of the fact that it was conceived to be this gigantic celebration
03:11of the Suez Canal, it is grand opera at its grandest.
03:15And it's a challenge for all of us making it and it always is, I think for anyone who
03:19does Aida, is how do you navigate between the giant pageantry and the enormity of the
03:27sound and scope of it and then get right back to what is happening between these people.
03:34And both are of great interest to me.
03:38So digging into the character work with the singers that we have, all of whom I think
03:43are splendidly equipped to deliver very rich characterizations as well as singing magnificently.
03:53It'll be the biggest thing I've ever done.