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Verdi’s aida E Pappano ‘in his element’ recording Aida with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia at the Sala Santa Cecilia in Rome ‘A miracle!’ Aida returns to the studio Hugo Shirley travels to Rome to witness a rare event in recent musical history – a no-expense-spared recording of a grand opera with a starry cast – and talks to its conductor, Sir Antonio Pappano for example, many of them, such as its recent Les martyrs, recorded under studio conditions. Baroque operas are also well represented. This is mainly thanks to independent labels, but 2015 has also already seen lavish new sets of works by Leonardo Vinci and Agostino Steffani from Decca and Erato respectively. xactly 10 years ago, Gramophone welcomed EMI’s recording of Tristan und Isolde from the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and Antonio Pappano. But in a double review in the September 2005 issue, both critics mentioned that the set, starring Nina Stemme and Plácido Domingo, was likely to be the final large-scale studio recording of an opera of its type. Happily it’s a prediction that hasn’t proved quite right, even if it was the last to take place at Abbey Road. Opera recordings have continued to be produced, even if many reflect two main shifts: towards the taping of live concerts and the concentration on the periphery of the repertoire. Opera Rara offers a steady flow of unusual works, On EMI, though, Pappano went on after Tristan to record several subsequent operas. One of them – Madama Butterfly in 2009 – featured the conductor’s other orchestra, that of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and the tenor Jonas Kaufmann. Still, there’s something particularly heartening about the latest project, now on Warner Classics, to unite conductor and orchestra with the world’s most sought-after tenor: a full-scale, no-expense-spared studio recording of one of the grandest operas of all, Verdi’s Aida, made in the luxurious environment of the Sala Santa Cecilia, the lavish 2800-seat hall in mellow curved wood and plush red at the heart of Renzo Piano’s 2002 Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome. 4 The best music of 2015 gramophone.co.uk

Verdi’s aida ‘Thrilling’: Jonas Kaufmann (left), Anja Harteros (centre) and Antonio Pappano perform Aida in concert following the recording sessions i a i l i c & S i o : M u s a c c h p h o t o g r a p h y When I talk to Pappano at the end of a packed day of recording in February, his famous energy and enthusiasm seem to be further buoyed by the excitement that such a project could have finally come to fruition – ‘A miracle!’ he calls it, his eyes lighting up. ‘It’s been in the making for quite a long time, and it’s been quite fraught. Operas in the studio are no longer being made – or are only being made very rarely. So to convince Warner and to find the dosh and all that stuff, that’s been a struggle. But with this cast? And in Italy? You have to ask yourself why certain recordings are made, but I think with this one that it’s a no-brainer.’ everybody has their favourite,’ Pappano admits. ‘Cossotto this and Caballé that, Leontyne Price this and Simionato that – there’s nothing you can do about it. But I have singers who are known for their finesse, and there are very few singers I could do this kind of Aida with.’ And what sort of Aida is it? The answer seems to be one that captures all the subtlety of the score, without any loss of theatricality. But Pappano, the renowned man of the theatre, ‘I’ve never seen a great Aida production – I don’t think they exist. This recording is an opportunity to do it well ’ – Antonio Pappano is surprisingly candid when explaining why Aida itself was the work he wanted to record. ‘It’s never really done well in the theatre,’ he says bluntly, referring not just to the difficulty of getting the stars of Rumours about the project had abounded for years, with one indiscreet soprano even announcing herself in programme biographies as the Aida for the recording. Pappano laughs when I remind him of that, but is happy now to have found ‘the right moment’ and the ‘right singers’. Kaufmann is joined by his fellow German Anja Harteros as Aida; Ludovic Tézier, arguably the leading Verdi baritone of the younger generation, is Amonasro; Ekaterina Semenchuk is Amneris; and bass-baritone Erwin Schrott adds extra star power as Ramfis. ‘With these pieces the necessary vocal quality into any one theatre for any length of time, but also to the basic incompatibility of the work’s need for grand spectacle with modern opera houses’ budgets and aesthetic outlooks. ‘I’ve never seen a great Aida production, and I don’t think they exist,’ he tells me. ‘My whole opera career has been about working with the best stage directors I possibly can, and that collaboration has been everything in my life. But here I get to do that work. Everything is in the imagination of the people involved. This is an opportunity to try and do it well.’ gramophone.co.uk The best music of 2015 5

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Verdi’s aida E

Pappano ‘in his element’ recording Aida with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia at the Sala Santa Cecilia in Rome

‘A miracle!’ Aida returns to the studio

Hugo Shirley travels to Rome to witness a rare event in recent musical history – a no-expense-spared recording of a grand opera with a starry cast – and talks to its conductor, Sir Antonio Pappano for example, many of them, such as its recent Les martyrs, recorded under studio conditions. Baroque operas are also well represented. This is mainly thanks to independent labels, but 2015 has also already seen lavish new sets of works by Leonardo Vinci and Agostino Steffani from Decca and Erato respectively.

xactly 10 years ago, Gramophone welcomed EMI’s recording of Tristan und Isolde from the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and Antonio Pappano. But in a double review in the September 2005 issue, both critics mentioned that the set, starring Nina Stemme and Plácido Domingo, was likely to be the final large-scale studio recording of an opera of its type. Happily it’s a prediction that hasn’t proved quite right, even if it was the last to take place at Abbey Road. Opera recordings have continued to be produced, even if many reflect two main shifts: towards the taping of live concerts and the concentration on the periphery of the repertoire. Opera Rara offers a steady flow of unusual works,

On EMI, though, Pappano went on after Tristan to record several subsequent operas. One of them – Madama Butterfly in 2009 – featured the conductor’s other orchestra, that of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and the tenor Jonas Kaufmann. Still, there’s something particularly heartening about the latest project, now on Warner Classics, to unite conductor and orchestra with the world’s most sought-after tenor: a full-scale, no-expense-spared studio recording of one of the grandest operas of all, Verdi’s Aida, made in the luxurious environment of the Sala Santa Cecilia, the lavish 2800-seat hall in mellow curved wood and plush red at the heart of Renzo Piano’s 2002 Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome.

4 The best music of 2015

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