Do you love movies like Ben Hur, Gladiator, and The Ten commandments?
Those big old Hollywood historic epics?
I have one thing to say.
Verdi's Aida.
Verdi's Aida.
This is the original, the work movies like Ben-Hur were modeled on.
Epic setting in ancient Egypt.
Towering Shakespearean drama, like any fine old Hollywood epic only better.
Epic star-crossed lovers on opposite sides of a war.
Love vs. War.
This opera is the work that movies like Ben Hur and The Ten Commandments were modeled on.
Like any opera, watch it on video with subtitles. You'd be surprised how natural it is to watch something in subtitles.
You want to see it, read the dialogue as it is sung.
Take it in, like you would Titanic or The Ten Commandments in the movie theater.
If you love movies like Ben Hur, this is the original model, the original masterpiece.
The Cats or Phantom of the Opera of its day.
One more thing: look for a traditional staging. Levine's DVDs from the Met are good for this. (The Met is not necessarily good for this anymore. It was Levine that did traditional stagings. Assuming you don't want Ben Hur in modern New York City surrounded by Industrial factories, because that is what they do to operas these days. That's why you want a traditional staging. I'm sure Levine has one of Aida on DVD.)
If you love movies like Ben Hur, this is the original!
And on DVD you can watch it like a movie!
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson