| What: Verdi’s Aida – presented by Cape Town Opera When: May 23 to 31, 2025 Where: Artscape Bookings: Webtickets Director: Magdalene Minnaar Cast includes: Nobulumko Mngxekeza, Nonhlanhla Yende, Lukhanyo Moyake, Conroy Scott, Ntuthuko Ziqubu, Lonwabo Mose, Van Wyk Venter and Khayakazi Madlala Orchestra: Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Kamal Khan Choreography: Gregory Maqoma Lighting design: Oliver Hauser Costumes: Roman Handt Production design: Louis and Nadine Minnaar Animation: Werner Burger and Louis Minnaar at Albino Creations |
Cape Town Opera’s Aida is on for a short season at Artscape: May 23 to 31, 2025. The production is a wow- staging, performance, voice and orchestra. I attended the matinee yesterday, Sunday May 25. The theatre was packed. Throughout the performance, there were bursts of applause by the appreciative audience and a standing ovation at the end. If you can get a ticket, get there and be treated to grand opera which has been stripped of the frippery and exoticism (such as elephants and animals) which tends to be associated with Aida.
This Aida, directed by CTO’s artistic director Magdalene Minnaar is grand and very much a spectacle but in tandem with that, there is a pared down stripped down aesthetic. I would call it minimalist epic staging (Louis and Nadine Minnaar) with opulent and often mad costumes (Roman Handt). Lighting designer Oliver Hauser has used light like a paint brush, flooding scenes with saturated light. The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Kamal Khan provides a spirited interpretation of Verdi’s score. Ahh, the Triumphal March – made us gasp.
Conceptually it is hard edged, sharp edged, with shades for me of Surrealist De Chirico. The production is set in a dystopian future and riffs off film and TV shows– like Star Trek and Dune. The stunning animation (Werner Burger and Louis Minnaar at Albino Creations) imbues the production with a cinematic aesthetic which works beautifully as the narrative plays out. Majestic stair cases heighten the expansive space – with the full volume of the stage in full force. (Jazzart dancers, choreographed by Gregory Maqoma) contribute to this Aida in motion.
Aida is a tragic opera and reverberates loudly – clankingly loudly – in this shattered world of ours with wars and conflicts around the globe. The principals are not only vocally magnificent but texture their roles with emotion and relay the tensions and conflicts in this story – a love story which doesn’t end well. Aida is a captive in Egypt. She is the slave of Amneris – the daughter of the Egyptian king. Aida is also royalty. She is an Ethiopian princess but this is not something that Amneris knows. They both love the same man, Radamès, an Egyptian general who goes off to fight the Ethiopians. Obviously Aida is not chuffed with this as the man she loves is now off to vanquish her homeland. Love in a war is impossible navigate. Death is the only way out for Aida and Radamès. Love can perhaps transcend the physical and exist in another sphere, if you believe in an afterlife. The space age conceptual arc makes a lot of sense in terms of the story – that they can transcend the earthly parameters of this world.
Nobulumko Mngxekeza as Aida Nonhlanhla Yende as Amneris blew me away with their voices and the palpable chemistry between them, invoking the drama of their story – slave and mistress – two women after the same man in an impossible time of war. They are magic together. Lukhanyo Moyake as Radamès and Conroy Scott as Amonasro are mesmerising. Khayakazi Madlala as the High Priestess is magnetic. Ntuthuko Ziqubu as the King of Egypt, Lonwabo Mose is Ramfis and Van Wyk Venter is the Messenger – are riveting. The chorus is wondrous.
This is a magnificent production. I was however puzzled at a scene with stage hands clunking on and off stage, moving sets and props. This disrupts the seamless integration of the rest of the production. I also thought that some of the dance, although it was fabulous, detracted from the drama and wasn’t needed.
The surtitles – I was reading the English – there are also in isiXhosa – are a joy to follow in plain English and make it a pleasure to follow this story and at the same time listen to the sung text in Italian. Bravo to Minnaar and Cape Town Opera for this minimalist epic Aida. It is an Aida which speaks to us vividly now. Although it is set on the African continent, it could be taking place anywhere. Verdi’s music is glorious and it is juxtaposed with this rather disturbing dystopian vision of where we will end up, if we cannot live in harmony and peace, with death the only way out. Do not miss.
✳ Featured image: Nonhlanhla Yende as Amneris in Aida, presented by Cape Town Opera, May 2025. Pic: Oscar O’Ryan. Supplied.
