Singer shines as pharaoh princess

Joe Kernan
Posted 10/2/14

If you are a betting person, you could safely bet that most of the people who go to see “Aida” as imagined by Elton John and Tim Rice have not seen Giuseppe Verdi’s version of the same story. …

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Singer shines as pharaoh princess

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If you are a betting person, you could safely bet that most of the people who go to see “Aida” as imagined by Elton John and Tim Rice have not seen Giuseppe Verdi’s version of the same story. But Christiana Rodi, the Cranston woman who is playing Amneris, has. Her mother is a singer and she grew up around classical music and opera and “Aida,” for a young Italian-American girl aspiring to sing, is required reading.

A native of Cranston, Christiana attended St. Mary's Academy Bay View in East Providence in 2007 and is a 2011 graduate of the Hartt School in Connecticut, with a BFA in Musical Theatre. Christiana makes her Boston debut in the Fiddlehead Theatre production of “Aida” at the Strand Theatre in Boston on Oct. 17.

“My mother, Cecilia Rodi, was a singer, so I come from a very classical background,” said Christiana. “I have been working pretty much since I graduated, doing concerts, singing with bands and doing Pop music, I sing in church, at weddings … I cover all the bases.”

Unlike many kids who go to performance colleges, Christiana intends to make a career of singing and some of the samples you can find on her website, www.christianarodi.com, show off her incredible range and a melisma that echoes the dynamics of singers like Whitney Houston. She attacks lyrics with a ferocity that may well make an ear and throat doctor worry about blown out vocal cords but most of us are just amazed at the apparent ease with which she sings.

“I don’t have any particular favorite performer but I am very impressed with Beyoncé [Knowles],” she said.

Past credits include “Into the Woods” (The Witch), “Songs for a New World,” “Show Boat” (with Goodspeed Musicals), “Rent” (with the Ocean State Theatre Company), and touring with “Cirque Dreams Holidaze” as the Ice Princess and “Cirque Dreams Rocks” as lead female vocalist around the United States, Mexico and for American troops in South Korea.

“I’m so excited about doing ‘Aida,’” she said. “I did it in high school and I think it’s a beautiful story.”

For a little background on the show, “Aida” premiered on Broadway in 2000 and ran for 1,852 performances until 2004. It is still performed almost daily in international productions, regional theatres, colleges and high schools.

“Aida” won four Tonys{* ok *} in 2000, including Best Score and Best Actress. The first national tour was nominated for nine awards and won five. The original cast recording won a Grammy. A song from “Aida,” “Written in the Stars” by Elton John and Lee Ann Rimes, was a popular hit in the United States and Canada.

Ironically, the musical got its inspiration from a children's book version of Verdi's opera written by the soprano Leontyne Price, who fashioned a career around singing “Aida,” among other roles. The book featured illustrations by Leo and Diane Dillon. Disney studios bought the rights for an animated feature film, in the line of “The Lion King.” Development on the film was shelved, but the source material evolved into the stage version with lyrics from Elton John and Tim Rice, who did the movie songs. The Disney version of “Aida” opens in the Egyptian wing of a modern museum. A man and a woman touring the exhibit catch each other's eyes and a statue of Amneris, a female Pharaoh, comes to life and transports them to Ancient Egypt, where Radames, captain of the Egyptian army, and his men are returning from an expedition through the land of Egypt's long-time enemy, Nubia. When his soldiers capture a group of Nubian women, he is captivated by one of the women, Aida, and falls in love.

While delivering Aida to the princess to be her slave, Mereb, also a Nubian slave, recognizes her as the daughter of the Nubian king. She commands him to keep her identity a secret because the Egyptians would kill her. Amneris likes Aida immediately. But then Amneris and Radames learn that they are to marry in seven days.

Amneris, and Radames, and Aida are entangled in conflicted loyalties and emotions. Mereb hatches a plan to escape with the king, Aida’s father, during the commotion of Amneris' wedding. Aida must betray Radames. Radames’ father learns about his son’s love for Aida and orders his men to find Aida and kill her.

Radames learns the truth of Aida's identity just as she is about to board his boat with her father. Although he is angry at Aida, she says she never lied about loving him. In the confusion, Radames cuts the rope to free the boat from the dock and the king escapes but Aida stays with Radames and a dying Mereb. Radames and Aida are arrested for treason and sentenced to be buried alive. Amneris convinces her father to let the lovers die in the same tomb. As they are slowly entombed, Radames swears he will search through a hundred lifetimes to find her again.

Back in the contemporary museum, the spirit of Amneris reveals that, as she became Pharaoh, “the lovers' deaths gave birth to a reign of peace” between Egypt and Nubia. She watches as the modern man and woman are strangely drawn to each other. They are the reincarnations of Aida and Radames, finding each other in a new beginning…

“I think everybody is having a great time and so excited to be doing ‘Aida,’” said Christiana. “It’s such a beautiful story.”

Christiana follows news of auditions in places like New York and Boston but plans to stay with her parents in Cranston for now.

“They are so supportive and encouraging,” she said. “They always have been.”

Practically speaking, she may be better off staying in Cranston, where she avoids the hassle of working some other job, like waiting on tables or bartending, while she is between auditions. Between regional roles, singing with bands, doing weddings out of Rhode Island, Christiana pretty much does what she was trained for full-time, without paying the time and money required to live in New York.

“I don’t know if I actually will move there, although basically, it all happens in New York. But it is exciting and I audition with hundreds of people all the time,” she said.

Of course, that could all change if she manages to get one big role … Wonder what Elton John and Tim Rice are working on?

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