Why Manny Loves Aida: A Special from Aria Code

Hi, Classical Music Happy Hour fans.

I'm your host, Manny Ax, and I'm here today with our producer, Lauren Purcell Joyner.

Hey, Manny.

It's really great to be here.

We've got something special to share with our listeners today, and it's an episode of Aria Code all about Aida.

And I know that you have a very special love of a very specific version of Aida.

Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Yeah, I actually...

I have on my phone some recordings that I have all the time-

Yeah

... with me, and one of the recordings I have is Leontyne Price-

Mm-hmm

...

Jon Vickers-

Yeah

... and Robert Merrill starring, or rather performing [laughs]-

Right

...

in Aida.

What about that particular recording?

I just think that, first of all, the singing itself is perfection, sublime perfection, and also the drama of the performance.

Yeah.

It's that combination of complete identification with the characters-

Mm-hmm

... and the vocal mastery is just inimitable.

It's incredible.

I've heard a little bit of the recording, and it's, it is sublime.

And you were talking a little bit about the story behind Aida.

Right.

Well, the story, of course, is also so compelling bec- it's completely timeless.

It could be in 2000 BC-

Yeah

...

in the Egyptian era, and it could be literally 15 years ago.

Aida gets captured, becomes enslaved, and her father, who is the king of another country, in this case Ethiopia-

Yeah

...

but it could be anywhere, is also captured and becomes a slave.

And he tries to get her to help him somehow annihilate the armies that have captured him, but of course, she falls in love with the hero of the Egyptians.

How do you deal with love for the individual and love of country?

Yeah.

How do you deal with being able to go back to your homeland and never seeing your homeland? These are all, all timeless things.

Yeah.

So this episode of Aria Code deals with one specific aria.

It's O Patria Mia.

Hmm.

Right, where the heroine, Aida, who is enslaved but comes from being a princess in her native Ethiopia, sings basically a soliloquy-

Yeah

... of, "I will never see my country again," and it's the saddest thing in the world.

Also, the music is sublime.

It alternates between this feeling of beauty and in the major key and an oboe solo, which is so piercing and heart-rending in the minor key, and it's back and forth.

Yeah.

You know, the memory of how wonderful it was-

Mm-hmm

...

when I was there, and I'll never see it again.

I mean, it's her describing the quality of the light-

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm

... and the, the green hills and the water-

Yeah, yeah

... and then this callback of-

Yeah

... "Oh, my homeland."

Yeah.

"O patria mia."

And, and every time she describes that, the oboe comes in-

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

... and says, "Oh, yes, and I'll never see it again." It's heart-rending.

Every minute of this episode is, is just so, so beautiful, informative, and sad, and I think it's also the people that talk about-

Yeah

... how their lives connect to this is incredibly fascinating.

Yeah.

I think that if you are ever wondering if opera does connect to real life, Aria Code is a great listen-

Yeah, yeah

... because that's, that's every single episode.

Yes.

It's this story, and then somehow there's someone out there who has-

Yeah

... experienced the same thing.

Yeah, and if we're lucky enough to have the Leontyne Price recording-

That is fair.

[laughs]

Wow.

[laughs] That's-

There you go.

Great story, great vocalists.

Yeah.

Amazing music.

Yeah.

We hope you'll enjoy this episode all about Aida, one of Manny's favorite operas.

This is season three, episode two of Aria Code: There's No Place Like Home, and it starts right now.