本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Yes I can say for sure Aida is the one opera I do love and will revisit whenever possible in future. The live horses/elephant brought onto stage is often amazing when I saw the news, but the charm of Aida to me is that it really tells something fundamental in love. In opera, which often tells a tragedy ending in deaths, something can be so deeply touching, with such simplicity, gracefulness, yet a very true and original reflection of human emotions, to an extent that movie can only achieve with the help of technological complexity and even a bit of orchestrated pretentiousness sometimes.
Truly to me, Aida told a fundamental truth about love, in the western understanding. It is fascinating to me that it is usually the man sacrifices his freedom and glory sometimes even life, for the woman he loves and run away with her into a utopia of freedom. Then the woman would come along and sacrifice herself, mixing life and death closely with his. This can mean run-away or death eventually together. But the tragic ending usually is justifiably glorified and as audience I came to feel what immortality really is. It looks like a tragic ending with death, but if you know you found the true love, isn't it actually a happy ending in its own right? It places a fundamental question in front of people: would you rather live like the Egyptian Princess Amneris with riches and power but loss of love or would you rather die like Aida truly loved and therefore immortal?
In our culture, things are bit different. Like in the movie "Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon"? In the end the girl jumped from the cliff, that is her love and sacrifice for her lover. Then it is so typical that the man get to live, fulfilling something grand for the nation, his people, yet when all is quiet and leaving himself alone, he secretly misses her, living an empty life without her and nobody would understand his deep secret. That is a classic Chinese version for immortality, or rather, mortality?
Of course, our life does not have a chance to be that dramatic. The intensity from these stories spans over 80 or 90 years of a life time, into every single day of life, some call it mundane, I call it dispersal.
P.S. Singers like Pavoratti has not touched me so far, Placido Domingo, sometimes. But new generation singer like Natalie Dessay, Johan Botha (beautiful beautiful tenor voice, South African, who sang Rhamades in Aida, the fact that he is so bulky he could not even do a proper theatre bow did not bother me at all ) can touch me instantly. Not that I do not appreciate the old school, diva like Dolora Zaijick (who sings the Egyptian princess Amneris for 20 years at the Met) attracted me too, a wonderful specimen of singing with yesterday's best training. It is just that I feel if there is too much of him/herself (i.e. ego) in the character, then it can turn me off. For example, Renata Tebalti, Maria Callas's long time rivalry, true, her voice and skills can be better than Maria Callas', but I never get to like her because of this reason. Tibalti played many good roles, but in many I have seen on TV or Youtube, she does not stop reminding me that she is the Renata Tebalti, not anyone else, not the character, but Tebalti. Alas!更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
Truly to me, Aida told a fundamental truth about love, in the western understanding. It is fascinating to me that it is usually the man sacrifices his freedom and glory sometimes even life, for the woman he loves and run away with her into a utopia of freedom. Then the woman would come along and sacrifice herself, mixing life and death closely with his. This can mean run-away or death eventually together. But the tragic ending usually is justifiably glorified and as audience I came to feel what immortality really is. It looks like a tragic ending with death, but if you know you found the true love, isn't it actually a happy ending in its own right? It places a fundamental question in front of people: would you rather live like the Egyptian Princess Amneris with riches and power but loss of love or would you rather die like Aida truly loved and therefore immortal?
In our culture, things are bit different. Like in the movie "Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon"? In the end the girl jumped from the cliff, that is her love and sacrifice for her lover. Then it is so typical that the man get to live, fulfilling something grand for the nation, his people, yet when all is quiet and leaving himself alone, he secretly misses her, living an empty life without her and nobody would understand his deep secret. That is a classic Chinese version for immortality, or rather, mortality?
Of course, our life does not have a chance to be that dramatic. The intensity from these stories spans over 80 or 90 years of a life time, into every single day of life, some call it mundane, I call it dispersal.
P.S. Singers like Pavoratti has not touched me so far, Placido Domingo, sometimes. But new generation singer like Natalie Dessay, Johan Botha (beautiful beautiful tenor voice, South African, who sang Rhamades in Aida, the fact that he is so bulky he could not even do a proper theatre bow did not bother me at all ) can touch me instantly. Not that I do not appreciate the old school, diva like Dolora Zaijick (who sings the Egyptian princess Amneris for 20 years at the Met) attracted me too, a wonderful specimen of singing with yesterday's best training. It is just that I feel if there is too much of him/herself (i.e. ego) in the character, then it can turn me off. For example, Renata Tebalti, Maria Callas's long time rivalry, true, her voice and skills can be better than Maria Callas', but I never get to like her because of this reason. Tibalti played many good roles, but in many I have seen on TV or Youtube, she does not stop reminding me that she is the Renata Tebalti, not anyone else, not the character, but Tebalti. Alas!更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net