Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House
July 18, 2018

There has been a great deal of excitement surrounding the opening of this new Opera Australia production of Verdi’s Aida, given the huge investment in technology used to stage it. Directed and choreographed by Italy’s Davide Livermore, the set is almost exclusively all-digital – and many of the effects are thrilling.

There is also some spectacular singing. But both the staging and the vocals are so full-force at times that the emotion at the heart of the opera becomes overwhelmed.

Aida. Photograph © Prudence Upton

Livermore, who is known for his work with projection, has collaborated here with Giò Forma (set design) and D-Wok (video design). The production uses 10 large LED screens which can move and rotate around the stage. Onto these are screened a range of dynamic, pristine images such as slithering gold snakes, a horseman riding through the desert, a red stormy sky, ancient male gods in nothing but gold G-strings, and patterned hieroglyphics.

Not that it is entirely digital. There are various props from chairs to a platform and the king’s podium but the technology is certainly to...