Orchestra & Choir

The Hanseatic Symphony Orchestra is put together especially for AIDA. The 60-piece orchestra is composed of the best instrumentalists from northern Germany, complemented by outstanding talents from all over Europe. Musical director and conductor Michael Ellis Ingram, known for brilliant performances in Chicago, Des Moines, Portland and Schwerin, finds the unmistakable sound that goes with the staging of our AIDA: faithful to the music of Verdi, but with a fresh sound and youthful virtuosity.

This sound, formulated for the first time in the concept paper by Barendregt-Loermans/ Barendregt, is also reflected in the cast of the choir, which will combine its vocal skills on stage with the demanding choreographies of Jerôme Knols and Rian van Holland: AIDA in the Arena is not only a mammoth production musically, but also in terms of acting and dancing, which can only be performed with the most versatile choristers*. Markus Popp takes on the task of developing the desired choral sound from many individual voices.

Performers

A total of 45 performers are actors, dancers, mime-actors and multi-talents in personal union, who slip into the most diverse roles during the opera and thus support the action and illustrate the story. They embody priests, warriors and Egyptian merchants and help with the creation of the Nile, the movement of the elephant "Ayana" and other scenic highlights of our AIDA production. All the performers, including our dancers, will sing all the chorus parts on stage and ensure that the boundaries between dancers, chorus singers and the other members of the ensemble are blurred. But that's not all: in addition to the permanent ensemble, up to 32 additional performers will appear in the Triumph show in the second act.