ROH Aida 1968 TV broadcast

[hmvman]

A link to this YouTube video was posted on the R3 Facebook page and I thought it might be of interest to folk on here who may not have seen it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph0FyutgyxU

A comment on the YouTube page suggests that this was the first colour television broadcast from ROH, January 1968. I don't know if that's right but this seems to be an interesting bit of television history.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

I see Radio 3 gave me a nod for alerting them to its existence on Youtube! The cast is extremely fine - Gwyneth Jones and Grace Bumbry the female leads, with Charles Craig as Radames. Craig replaced Jon Vickers for this one performance in the run after Vickers withdrew in a row over fees (presumably linked to the broadcast).

[grandchant]

Wow! I clicked on this expecting the usual 5 minute clip only to find it's the whole opera. An amazing insight into productions of the time. Did this production remain until Ponnelle?

[Chris Newman]

Oh! Wonderful stuff, hmvman. Many thanks. I recall the first broadcast. I skimmed it just now and see the interval chat with the quiet modest Ted Downes has been cut out. Rather a shame as at the start when he was asked what he thought of "Aida" chuckled and replied in broad Scouse "Ee, well! It's a raght biggun, innit?" "Aida" was the first major BBC outside broadcast in colour.

I wonder if the same guardian angel who put this on YouTube has the Giulini/Visconti "Traviata" which was broadcast six months before in 1967 with Mirella Freni, Renato Cioni and Piero Capuccilli. I went to a performance on the fifth of June which occasionally appears on CD. The sets and costumes were in black, white and grey except for "happier" moments when UV lighting brought out colour in costumes, not that this showed on TV. Giulini was magnificent and the cast were excellent though Cioni's voice hardens on the microphone. He sounded more lyrical in the flesh and was popular at Covent Garden in the sixties until the threesome came along.