The Metropolitan Opera season premiere of composer Giuseppe Verdi and librettist Antonio Ghislanzoni's popular "Aida" took place on October 2. I attended on October 21, the fifth of the season's dozen performances. Dolora Zajick, who has justifiably had a virtual lock on the meaty role of Amneris, only nominally the opera's seconda donna, for the last two decades, was scheduled to sing in all twelve hearings. I was disappointed to find out, when I arrived, that she was indisposed and would not be appearing on this particular evening, but was placated when I learned that her replacement was Olga Borodina, who has been in rehearsal for the role of Marguerite in Hector Berlioz's "La Damnation de Faust." Sometimes a star does step in for another star! And Borodina, a regal Amneris indeed, did not fail to make sparks fly in "Fu la sorte dell'armi," her Act Two, Scene One duet with Violeta Urmana, in the title role, and in the fourth act Judgment Scene, with Johan Botha as Radamès.

When a singer undergoes a major change, such as a considerable weight loss or a shift in vocal category, one listens, for a number of years, for evidence of how the change has affected the voice and, if it was a choice, whether or not the singer was right to do it. Urmana, as Aida, offered an intense and nuanced "Ritorna vincitor!" capped by a sensitive "Numi, pietà," suggesting that she could be as vibrant in a soprano part as she was in the mezzo-soprano roles in which the Met audience first heard her.

Botha's voice was bright in his dynamically varied "Celeste Aida." He delivered its quiet phrases with authority, understating those leading up to the climactic high B-flat. He hit that last note full voice, but then decrescendoed on it, making it, ultimately, as ethereal as it should be.

Urmana cleanly negotiated the diminuendoing melismatic figure separating sections of the "Ma tu, Re" ensemble, following Amonasro's entrance, in the Triumphal Scene, and, if I'm not mistaken, Botha joined her on the high C here. Urmana's lustrous and appropriately restrained "O patria mia" was marred only by the high C, near the end, which threatened to go awry and which she moved quickly past. This exposed note, in a pianissimo phrase and itself marked 'dolce,' has historically proven so daunting that it's said to be the reason that Aida was among the first roles abandoned by such legends as Rosa Ponselle, Zinka Milanov and Renata Tebaldi.

Both Urmana and Botha experienced difficulty with some high notes in their duet, "Pur ti riveggo, mia dolce Aida," soon after. Pacing them was Daniele Gatti, whose account of the score was taut, sometimes to the point of being rushed, and one wondered if he was saving the singers by hurrying through the problem passages or if he was causing some of their woes.
Carlo Guelfi contributed a blustery Amonasro. Of the two basses, Roberto Scandiuzzi as Ramfis proffered the more consistently opulent tone, though not on the lowest notes or on high F in the Temple Scene, while Stefan Kocán, a throaty Pharaoh, fielded the steadier instrument. Adam Laurence Herskowitz portrayed the messenger and Jennifer Check, the offstage priestess.

Alexei Ratmansky, associated with the Bolshoi Ballet and American Ballet Theater, and making his Met debut this season, devised new choreography, suitably celebratory and exuberant, for the Triumphal Scene.

Further performances of "Aida" take place on October 24 at 1 p.m., which will be transmitted live, in high definition, to movie theaters throughout the world; October 29 and November 2 and 6 at 8 p.m.; March 26 and 31, 2010, at 8 p.m. and April 3 at 1 p.m. For the last performance in October and for the November ones, Richard Margison, Orlin Anastassov and Keith Miller replace Botha, Scandiuzzi, and Kocán. In the New Year, Hasmik Papian, Salvatore Licitra, Carlo Colombara and Elizabeth DeShong play the roles of Aida, Radamès, Ramfis and the priestess. Beginning October 29, Paolo Carignani takes over for Gatti in the pit. For remaining tickets, priced from $15 to 375, telephone 212/362-6000, visit www.metopera.org, or go the Met box office at Lincoln Center. Rush tickets are available on the day of performance.