Metropolitan Opera Archives

Jimmy Carter came to "Aida" last night, the first time in the 95-year old history of the Metropolitan Opera that a President of the U. S, has attended a performance in the house.

As President Carter is a music lover, he was pleased to take in the most spectacular of Verdi's operas following a fundraising dinner for Abe Beame which took place on the grand tier immediately before the performance.

He entered the center first tier box to cheering crowds many of whom annoyed the ushers because everybody wanted to be upfront or in the aisles to get a glimpse of him before the lights went down and the music came up.

There was no national anthem of "Hail to the Chief" preceding the "Prelude." As our president is not fond of panoply or extracurricular display, the White House staff had not indicated any change in normal procedure.

Even Carter couldn't choose his opera as the Met's schedule is set months ahead, but for subject matter about men in similar jobs, the tragic tale of warring Egypt and Ethiopia couldn't have been more apt.

Commissioned by the Khedive of Egypt for $30,000 in 1869, "Aida" displays on stage the tragic reciprocal love of the captive-slave Aida for warrior Radames. We find also the king of Egypt of the victorious state pitted against the captured Amonasro, King of Ethiopia, Aida's father.

Soprano Gilda Cruz-Romo is familiar in the title role, but her lover Radames, tenor Giorgio Lamberti, was singing his part for the first time at the Met and he presented the anomaly of looking more Egyptian than Anwar Sadat but singing like anything but a hero, especially a Verdian hero.

Lamberti's voice was tight throughout, and too small and dry for the roles. He almost muffed his high B flat in the finish of the [beginning] "Celeste Aida" but for this he could be forgiven. His problems were more basic. He just doesn't have a luscious enough voice for the part.

As Amneris, daughter of the King, Tatiana Troyanos looked and acted like a princess but didn't sing like one. Her voice is apt for many roles, but not for the royalty of this opera.

The singer who defined his role best was Ingvar Wixell as Amonasro whose baritone was both positively quantitative and qualitative. It projected an earthy vigor that expressed the strength of the beleaguered monarch. John Cheek was quite satisfactory as the King.

During Scene 2 of Act I in the temple of Phta, there was even a talisman on stage, which in different circumstances, could have been just the thing for a U. S. President. A huge shining gilded bronzed bird looking like an artist's apotheosis of an eagle, was the focal point.

This was not a gala "Aida," yet for somebody seeing the exotic Dexter-Reppa-Hall production for the first time, the experience packs undoubted excitement. The pleasure of having our President and his wife as guests, with the former taking out his glasses at intermission and perusing his program, made it doubly so. They really enjoyed themselves and the President said so. Backstage he commented, "I've seen 'Aida' once before, but it was not on a scale like this."

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