(Credit: Bernd Uhlig)

On Sept. 6 and 13, Riccardo Frizza will join forces with Anna Netrebko, Jonas Kaufmann and Luca Salsi for two concert performances of Verdi’s “Aida.”

The first performance will be held at the Teatro San Carlo and the second will be the closing the Masters of Classic festival in Bucharest. Elizabeth DeShong and Alexander Köpeczi will round out the cast as Amneris and Ramfis in Napoli while Yulia Matochkina will sing Amneris in Bucharest.

In a statement Frizza said, “It’s exactly three years since my last Aida, in a concert performance: an intense experience that brings the conductor face to face with the score which, since it is Verdi, is obviously perfect. And, as we’re talking about Aida, the composition (beyond perfect, bordering on sublime) takes on an incredible, inherent theatrical life of its own. The debate over concert performance versus staged opera is destined to last forever, to the great joy of theatres and artists, called upon to take part in what feels like a challenge.”

He added, “Think of the legendary, pharaonic productions of ‘Aida’ at the Arena in Verona, and you will understand why Aida needs to be reduced to its essence whenever possible, revealing the musical beauty within the extravaganza, so evocative thanks to a prodigious palette of colours, allowing the singers (in this case, outstanding stars Anna Netrebko, Jonas Kaufmann and Luca Salsi) to make music alongside the musicians, I would say almost relishing the magnificent choral displays and triumphal marches, prelude to their moments of pure lyricism which are the hallmark of Aida. This opera is monumental and intimate at the same time, its theatricality is quintessential Verdi before the ultimate creative frenzy of ‘Otello’ and ‘Falstaff,’ with its esoteric perfume and sense of tragedy, and its parola scenica, supreme expression of the greatest man of theatre ever to come from Italy: in a word, ‘Aida.'”