By Javier C. Hernández Moments before she went onstage in “Aida” at the Metropolitan Opera on a recent night, the soprano Angel Blue was in her dressing room, smiling and blowing kisses on a ...

It was much more potent than Radamès and Aida singing their subsequent death duet in the vault, which should be the opera’s most wrenching moment. Dmitry Belosselskiy was insufficiently lethal ...

Aida has long epitomised opera at its most extravagant - think sweeping sets, luxurious costumes and even real-live horses, an experience intended to transfix the audience with grandeur.

"Because Aida is so big and so expensive... I did definitely feel the pressure of that," director Michael Mayer told AFP in a recent interview of his production that premiered this month, adding ...