Aida

Luck was with me, it did not rain Sunday after lunch! So the opera was a go. I arrived at the Arena just before 8pm. I am pretty sure my section of the gradinata was either sold out or close to it, but I was able to get a pretty great seat. The upper unreserved section, where you just sit on the stone steps, is fenced off from the formally ticketed area where there are temporary stadium seats set up. The entrance porticoes in our section come out about three steps up from the fence. As a singleton, I was able to get a seat very close to the center line just below the walkway in that first stet of steps without any trouble. I was lucky that I didn't have anyone behind me with their feet up in my business! The view over people's heads was totally fine, no problems there. Even for a larger group, arriving up at 8pm would be fine. You would be able to sit close to the center line, but further up. For a single person, or even a couple, they let people worm in to better seats in filled sections, so people who arrived at 8:30 still had good seats.

Of course, the arena is a huge thing, so it was a long view to the stage, but what a huge stage, and what huge sets! You will see what I mean when you look at the shots with people on the stage!



Here's a shot from the first act, with soldiers filing out along the stands of the arena.

The sound quality was pretty good. It was soft, but people were quiet. I have ruined it for myself, though, by reading that they do amplify the sound a bit, using a pretty sneaky technique: there are pairs of microphones on the stage and speakers at its edge, so you don't lose the illusion that the sound is produced exclusively by the singers! Clever!



Oooh, the opening of the parade! My dad loves the "Triumphal March" fanfare of the parade, which I totally get.



The parade sequence was spectacular. There were easily over 400 people onstage in the production, and they all come out for the parade. There were also four horses in the parade, they did a little dressage.



The Verona Opera believes in doing all the intermissions, apparently. We had three twenty minute intermissions. At least that gave us a break to rest our sore behinds! Actually, I felt surprisingly OK. I brought a sweatshirt and folded it up to sit on. If I were to do it again, I would just cough up to rent a cushion, since you don't seem to have to leave a deposit, just pay the rental. I did buy a program with a libretto, which was only 5 Euros. I think it may be a "seasonless" program, since I am pretty sure they do Aida every year. It didn't include production details, like performers.



Something that surprised me, looking at photos online of their past productions, is that at least as recently as five years ago the sets were different! Considering how much stage dressing is involved, I am surprised it ever changes. The new sets are definitely more impressive!

This season is over, but if you are interested in going to the opera in Verona in the future, I would definitely say to go for it. I don't think I would go for the expensive seats, given that there is always a chance it will be miserable weather. (I was at serious risk, in fact, though I was only planning five days in advance! The weather was fine when I bought the ticket, then threatened rain, and then ended up clear.) There were still numbered seats and open seating available at the performance I was at, so I think that if you are going to be in Verona anyway (live nearby, backpacking, doing your "grand tour") you could decide even day-of. I think the seating I was in was not bad for the price. The cheapest assigned seats were close to three times the price. While that means an actual physical seat, those were pretty small seats. The weather trade-off is worse there, too. To get a good seat in a price section, you have to buy early, yet you will have no idea of the weather in advance.

Anyway, all in all a magical experience. Would be a good date!