Aida comes to the…tennis center

  • 2004-09-29
  • By Alec Charles
TALLINN - It's been nearly 40 years since Estonia last staged a production of that most spectacular of Italian operas, Giuseppe Verdi's "Aida." But, just for the second week of October, the world's most famous Ethiopian slave girl is back in the Baltics - and this time it's personal.

"It's a heavenly role," says Cynthia Makris, the American soprano who'll sing "Aida" next week. "She's proud - she's stoical - she's a true survivor. She can do the slave thing, but she's not groveling. She's torn between her father and the man she loves. It's such a huge love it tears her apart."

This is the third time Makris has sung Verdi in Estonia. In recent years she has assumed the mantles of Abigaille in "Nabucco" and Lady Macbeth in "Macbeth," in performances imbued with passion, sensitivity and strength - qualities ideal for her latest role.

She particularly enjoys playing in Tallinn. "Opera hasn't degenerated into something that's just an upper-class thing," she says. "It's nice to sing in a place where everyone's singing in their hearts."

She also relishes her first opportunity to work with Swedish director Marianne Morck. "You get the big picture of Egypt, the huge spectacle," she says. "But it's not a cliched "Aida." Marianne gives you the inside story."

Morck spent 27 years as a singer and director at the world-renowned Malmo Opera. "I've sung Carmen," she

says. "But I'm older now. I can't sing the most beautiful parts any more."

Morck's direction stresses human and naturalistic styles of performance in a work whose gentler and more lyrical passages tend to be neglected in favor of its grand fanfares and choral splendor. An advocate of operatic intimacy, she believes the days of the self-conscious, overblown diva are past. "We love what Callas did, but if you do her today it's pathetic," Morck says.

"Opera has a bad reputation. If you can't catch the audience - if they're sitting back and looking at their watches - they're gone. I don't want to tell a story of what happened in the past. I want the audience to be there now."

The show will be staged just outside the center of Tallinn, at the Rocca al Mare Onistar Tennis Center - the only place big enough to hold the 130-strong orchestra and cast. In the middle of a tight rehearsal schedule, the director seems only mildly anxious about the venue. "It's a sports arena," she says. "But we're prepared. I have a picture in my mind, and in one week I hope to see it."

In fact, however, she has other plans for the opening night. "I've never seen a premiere I've directed," she admits. "I won't be there - I couldn't be. I'll be home doing my washing."

With tickets currently selling like hot cakes, Ms. Morck may be the only person in Tallinn to miss the show. o

"Aida", Estonian National Opera

Oct. 8 's 17

Tickets 200 kroons (12 euros) - 600 kroons