Believe it or not, Aida works perfectly well without the elephants. It could be argued that the Triumphal March is even more triumphant without the marching. And if any doubt remains about Verdi's facility as an orchestrator, they ought to let the band out of the pit like this more often.
In current music director Mark Elder, the Hallé has the most distinguished Verdi interpreter in the country; it was only a matter of time before he brought his operatic pedigree to the concert platform, and the 100th anniversary of the composer's death is the perfect place to start. What was less predictable is that the result should be such a revelation.
A substantial part of the impact is down to the intelligence of the programming. Rather than the meaningless grab-bag, which the fatal word "gala" usually implies, Elder presents extended sequences from three very different operas with something of their internal architecture intact. As an accelerated analysis of Verdi's career it could hardly be bettered - the sinfonia from Nabucco to set the tone, a scene from Trovatore to represent the firebrand younger Verdi, the study scene from Don Carlos to demonstrate the ice-cool older one. And finally, act two of Aida in its entirety, summing up the totality of his mature achievement.
The singers brought in for the occasion are world class: among them the outstanding Chilean soprano Veronica Villarroel, rising young Moscow-trained mezzo Maria Raidtchikova and - for Don Carlos's doom-laden battle of the basses - Clive Bayley versus Willard White. In search of extra volume, the Hallé Choir double up impressively with the Leeds Festival Chorus, creating a wall of sound more sturdily built than on any operatic stage.
But the astonishing feature is the orchestra itself: far larger than the average pit-band of course, and handling music it would not normally touch like newly minted gold. The visceral impact of a vast operatic monster with Willard White at the front and eight double basses at the back is an exceptional sonic experience. Under Elder's pin-point direction even Aida's cheesy trumpets rise above their own cliche, the over-familiar march ringing out with a new sense of Mahlerian intensity. Elder proves that you don't have to take Verdi to the theatre - Verdi brings the theatre with him in every bar of his score.
• Programme repeated tonight. Box office: 0161-907 9000.
