This weekend Teatro alla Scala revived Frengo's gilded Aida, you know, the same production that framed the Alagana-Celeste-Aida meltdown and inflamed a million groins with Roberto Bolle's golden thong and Myrna Kamara's rock solid thighs, so it's only natural that there has to be some drama attached.
Corriere della Sera's lionized critic Paolo Isotta flexed his acerbic wit (and gave a shout-out to Flaubert's Salammbô) in his review, praising Ekaterina Semenchuk as Amneris and lauding Hui He in the title role as "a full-bodied, gorgeous voice with an exact vibrato that wasn't too much or too little, elegant portamenti, a proper sense of phrasing (if it hadn't been continuously impeded by Noseda) and perfect Italian diction."
Clearly not impressed with conductor Gianandrea Noseda, Isotta went straight up Salinger-vs.-Chaplin mode: "[...] He rises and falls like a baby on a rocking horse, sending kisses to the stage and the pit, imitating the gestures of Oren and Gergiev. On his arms appear bird wings, tired from a flight devoid of light."
It's a relatively declawed (and poetic) criticism from his usual vinegar, like earlier this year when he vitriolically slammed Harding's Verdi and Wagner, which instigated Lissner's banhammer. If Harding can walk it off, Noseda can, too (espeically since we made this adorable photoshop)!