I was in the audience for the Chisinau National Opera appearance at the Hackney Empire last night (11th February). As always a remarkable performance and production. The soloists are always tremendous. The scenary is always remarkable. However, on this occasion the scenary changes were so extensive that it led to several very long pauses of silence between scenes. The stage at the Hackney Empire isn't enormous and this is also a problem when staging an opera like 'Aida'. This is a truly monumental opera and requires for the grand marches dozens of performers to represent armies and captured soldiers and hostages. This company could only muster three spear carriers, two archers and four infantry men - they had to keep walking across the stage, round the back and then marching across again.
On the other hand there was plenty of dramatic singing, excellent ballets to cover the long instrumental passages, and good use of a group of children. Some nice pyrotechnics too.
Overall another good production from a good company - and the three main soloists were terrific. My rating : 8/10
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