Aida

Went to the Pacific Symphony's concert Saturday night.  This is seventh one in the 2016-2017 night series.  They have one more performance on Tuesday!

Listen to Alan Chapman's preview on SoundCloud.

This performance will broadcast on Classical KUSC on March 19, 2017.

Music director Carl St.Clair conducted Giuseppe Verdi's Aida with the following cast.

Aida:  Kelebogile Besong

Radamès:  Arnold Rawls

Amneris:  Milena Kitić

Amonasro:  Mark Delavan

Ramfis:  Julian Close

King of Egypt:  Philip Skinner

Messenger:  Nicholas Preston

High Priestess:  Renée Tatum

Dancers:  Tyquan Christie, Raymond Ejiofor, Lisa Gillespie, Isaac Huerta, Natalie Iscovich, and Andrew Martinez

And this completes the Pacific Symphony opera ABC cycle!  A for Aida, B for Puccini's La Boheme, and C for Bizet's Carmen.

Per Alan Chapman in his pre-concert lecture, this is officially called a "Pyramid Scheme".  :)

Anyways, this is the whole stage in a sandbox.  By the time of intermission, it looks like this.

I liked how they used the spotlights, and focused on the singers when they were singing out their thoughts.  Kind of like the "Cone of Silence."  :)

Here's some trivia, there were 3 CRT televisions like this in the seating sections.  This is so the singers can see Carl conduct.  They can't use a digital one because of the lag time!

[Update] Here's how the pyramid scheme was made!  :)