Pharaoh out of time

Set in 3025, Cape Town Opera's Aida reinvents itself for a new generation, but the voices and the music remain timeless

- Keith Bain

Yes, it’s that grandly spectacular opera that plays out in Egypt, its story set in some Eurocentric vision of an ancient land with made-up wars, muddled historical periods and an absolutely cacophonous agglomeration of characters, plots, subplots, wartime heroics, clandestine love, insane jealousy between romantic rivals, hidden identities, an enslaved princess and, of course, no end of political meddling by terrifying high priests manipulating the intrigue behind the scenes.

It’s all that and much more — but don’t go to Cape Town Opera’s Aida expecting some Indiana Jones-style “adventure in archaeology” rendition of what’s surely one of the great classical operas.

This version bypasses the often-times ridiculous concatenation of historical references and transcends time and space to instead present a post-Black Panther reimagining of Aida set precisely 1000 years in the future rather than 4000 in the past.

Whether or not this made-up, fantastical world always works is neither here nor there. If theatre’s job is to rip you away from everyday reality and transport you to a faraway place, then this fantastically oversized Magdalene Minnaar-conceived Aida does precisely what it’s meant to do: it blasts you with every trick in the theatrical playbook — and then some.

Its sets are the most enormous built for Cape Town Opera in decades, the costumes are as out there as you're ever going to set eyes upon and the fierceness with which the cast of apparently millions strides onto stage, puffs its chest, performs, emotes and belts out those surging, soaring, heart-jolting songs while the orchestra performs up a storm — all of it is just so very, very much.

There are elements that could be tempered, reworked, improved upon, but I actually don’t care — this is South African opera proving a point.

I’ve seen