EL MUNDO

AIDA MADRID Giuseppe Raffa – LAS VENTAS . The OPERAMA concept upheld by the Italian Conductor and Director Giuseppe Raffa has both advantages and relevance. The Aida that Giuseppe Raffa has been strolling around the World for the last twenty years and which has been staged at the Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas of Madrid, embodies the eternal and controversial mission of making of Opera an entertainment for the masses. Almost 70 000 people contemplating over four nightly performance of Aida in Madrid “The Opera Spectacular” by Giuseppe Raffa

In this “Operama” we find pythons and elephants rising from huge ramps together with the most sophisticated sound system and video-projections and a significant number of extras (1200 in this particular case).

All this is concentrated in large venues such as football stadiums; multi-purpose facilities of 15000 spectators or stadiums and now also in bull-fighting arenas. A lyrical mega show maybe not suitable to a few purists but for a wider audience certainly.

Among the performing cast, some of the greatest names in Opera alternated themselves on stage. The the title role of Aida was performed on alternate nights by sopranos Monica Pick Hieromini and Adriana Morelli. The Italian tenor Nicola Martinucci and the Spanish tenor Antonio Ordoñez have shared the star role of General Radames. Bruna Baglioni and Ruza Baldani interpreted Amneris. Menorca’s baritone Joan Pons in the role of Amonasro together with Vicente Sardinero. The role of the King, was engaged by Giancarlo Boldrini over the four nights.

SPECIAL SCENERIES. Antonio Ordoñez has asserted on more than one occasion that he finds himself especially comfortable in interpreting the role of Radames in this special setting: “You will notice, I find myself more at ease in these type of shows than in a conventional theatre. Maybe because there you are limited to a few movements”. After the Aida production staged in Bruxelles, Ordoñez explained further: “In these types of staging, the audience participates in the action an also becomes a protagonist. Everything has his good and bad sides: here if you sing well you sing very well, if you sing badly you go down very hard”

Aida by Giuseppe Raffa of Operama, The Opera Spectacular, arrived to Madrid Spain, to continue in Barcelona, after having been stage for millions of spectators in Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Hong-Kong, Canada, Mexico and Australia.

In that sense, the Spanish tour would have had nothing of pioneering about it, were it not for the fact that it held in its very stage concept the use for the first time the application of a sophisticated virtual reality. In addition to the costumes, which have been purposely produced, brand new, following the rest of the aforementioned world tour.

On both sides of the Royal Booth, engineers under the orders of Maestro Raffa, have placed all the paraphernalia of projectors and computers needed to execute three hours and a half of interactive entertainment. The complicated system of projections, designed by the same French company, which produced the powerful sceneries for the concerts of Jean-Michelle Jarre, “shot” without interruption images onto three immense curved screens placed on the frontal stands. A sort of Opera in Cinemascope.

AIDA IN REAL TIME – With this method, it is possible to change scenery with immediacy thus being able to narrate Verdi’s opera more effectively and with an additional element of spectacular entertainment.

The numbers of the monster

The statistical numbers managed by Maestro Giuseppe Raffa for the Operama Aida in Madrid, are of a production that leaves no space to no doubt. A super production of monstrous magnitude arrived at Las Ventas.

Extras. 1000 extras took part in this love story between the Ethiopian slave Aida and the heroic Egyptian general Radames.

Costumes. In total some 1200, designed and produced in Italy. A brand new wardrobe especially produced for this production Props. 5000

Audience. 45000 spectators in performances in Vancouver (Canada) and Tokyo (Japan) are the tour’s record; with the production never hosting less 12000 per performance and always at venue’s sold-out capacity.

Budget. Roughly 2,5 million Euros.

Tickets. Of the 70000 on sale in Madrid but a few remained, the record continues.