Couldn't sleep last night, got up and turned on the tub and quickly ran into an odd looking operatic production, or I should say film. It turned out to be Aida, a fact that I would have recognized in a dozen beats rather than a dozen measures except that it was in Swedish, a most disorienting phenomenon. I was fascinated by several things about it. The most conspicuous of them was that the women were topless most of the time, as they doubtless would have been at the historical time corresponding to the story. The acting, though sometimes over the top, was generally good and invariably interesting. The director made some minor changes to the story, principally at the end. They worked, more or less. Amneris was portrayed much more sympathetically than usual. Alas, the film has poor audio and the conductor takes the big numbers so quickly that they lose all their grandeur. Still, I liked it well enough that I was hoping to find it on video, but I've had no luck at all there. Has anyone else seen this strange Aida? Richard, who invites you to visit him at http://opuspocus.ca