Aida on Sydney Harbour Screening, various

When Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida was commissioned for the opening of the Cairo Opera House, its composer was no longer the unimpeachable master of Italian opera. For almost the entirety of the 1860s, he had devoted much of his time to organising his estate, only producing a couple of relatively minor works. Aida came as a revelation. Suffused with Arabesque glow and staged with a grandeur that left its predecessors in the dust, it became an instant sensation and began the composer’s string of late masterpieces.
Every year, Handa Opera on the Harbour produces a single production on the side of Sydney’s bay, framed by the city’s soaring skyline. For 2015, they took on Aida, in what proved to be their most opulent spectacle yet. This September, for a single night only, Opera Australia and CinemaLive will screen the production in cinemas across the UK.
With a set structured around a towering bust of Nefertiti, a pyrotechnic triumphal march and an enormous cast of singers, actors, dancers and camels, this is both a visual and a musical feast. Tenor Walter Fraccaro makes for a Radames of resounding virtue, while soprano Latonia Moore imbues the title role with a noble dignity. But it’s mezzo Milijana Nikolic who dazzles the most, making the most of love rival Amneris’ constantly shifting emotions, from love-struck envy to desolation.
Aida will be screened in five venues across Central London, and many more in the outer reaches. Cinemas include the Vues at Angel, Finchly Road and Westfield London; the Odeons are Panton Street, Richmond and Wimbledon; and Crouch End’s intimate Art House. Book now for the chance to see opera at its most spectacular.