A WEEKEND performance of Aïda, billed as "Ireland's largest ever opera", was marked by walkouts, repeated rounds of slow handclapping and complaints by disappointed concertgoers.
Promoters KC Productions had promised "the most spectacular version of Aïdaever staged", with a cast of more than 250, a full orchestra and lavish stage sets and scenery in the O2.
However, the performance on Friday night sparked the latest round of angry intervention from Dublin audiences, following on the heels of the booing and slow-handclapping during Cat Stevens’s concert last month.
One audience member described the show as a repeat of the Barbra Streisand fiasco of 2007 “without the mud”, while another took umbrage at the “blacking up” of the eponymous heroine of Verdi’s opera, set in ancient Egypt.
"The performance was an insult not only to my senses but an outrage to black opera singers," Geraldine Jennings told The Irish Times.
Most criticism focused on the set changes for the opera, which were carried out in full view of the audience and under full lighting because no curtain was used. The hammering involved in set building took 10 minutes for each of the seven breaks. The lengthy set changes sparked rounds of slow handclapping, as well as causing delays.
There were further complaints about the subtitles being impossible to read from many seats, the video screens being hard to read and the lack of any programme.
Pat Burke of KC Productions acknowledged last night that some people had left and other slow-handclapped, but claimed 6,000 of the 7,000 crowd remained at the end to give a standing ovation.
“This was a traditional Italian opera and some of the sets were over 100 years old,” he said. “We were a bit surprised too, but that’s how it’s done in Italy.”
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