This month WA Opera presents Aida at His Majesty’s theatre. Directed by Graeme Murphy, the production features a stellar international and local cast. Conductor Richard Mills, AO, told OUTinPerth’s Zoe Carter about some of the highlights of WA Opera’s latest production…

‘Our tenor has sung the role at the Metropolitan Opera and is a regular guest artist there, his name is Eduardo Villa; our baritone …Anoosha Golershorki, he’s also sung the role at the Met. Our Aida is an outstanding young Perth based artist, Avale Cole, who is going to have a great career internationally – she already has a London agent. She’s a very fine artist indeed. This is a role debut for her, and the role suits her completely. She has the vocal ability to sing the role, which is a very rare ability, and she brings great grace and subtlety to her portrayal of her character.
[The fourth member of the quartet] is the great Australian mezzo soprano, Bernadette Cullen, who is a legendary artist at the height of her powers.

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‘We’re doing [Aida] in a very particular way. It’s sometimes traditional in Act II, Scene II, the so-called triumphal scene, to have a whole lot of extra things – hundreds of extras, soldiers, elephants that kind of thing. But we’re doing it in a more restrained way and I think a more intelligent way, concentrating on the music and the drama.
Graeme Murphy has done a production that is very Egyptian in flavour, with Egyptian movement and a lot of suggestion of the atmosphere of ancient Egypt. We’ve got the actual river Nile flowing across the front of the stage it’s a piece that concentrates on the human drama and the magical atmosphere of the piece.
Any director brings to Aida a particular vision of it, and Graeme’s vision of it is as a personal journey of the main characters, so the whole production is centred around that and I think that works particularly well.

‘The music is wonderful – it’s a great opera. It’s one of Verdi’s three last operas, so the music is masterful. It’s an example of what we call late style – it’s the work of somebody who has been doing something for a long time and therefore it has a particular assurance and a mastery that only come from someone who has worked in a medium for many, many years. The fact that he’s a genius of course helps…
It’s a benchmark for any company to tackle because it shows the strengths off of any company, and we’ve got a great cast.’

Zoe Carter