Poor Aida. She never really has a chance. She’s the Ethiopian slave of an Egyptian princess, their two countries are at war, and hers is the away team. She can’t trust anyone – not her boss, not her father, not even the gods. Worst of all, she can’t trust her costumer.

No, this isn’t the sexy, rock ‘n’ roll Aida in the Elton John-Tim Rice, Disney-esque version from Broadway. It’s the Bulgarian touring production by Opera Verdi Europa, which performed the composer’s war-torn musical pageant “Aida” Friday at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono.

Although several of the voices in the large cast – including the powerful tenor Kamen Chanev as Radames, mezzo-soprano Lilliana Lavric as Amneris, Ivaylo Dzhurov as the high priest Ramphis – were outstanding, the production might have reminded some in the audience of the best community shows they’ve seen presented in Maine. And it’s hard to say whom that compliments – or insults – the most.

When it comes to opera, the voices are the thing, of course. The leads in this show were capable enough, especially those mentioned above. Once upon a time, that’s all that mattered. But these days, we expect more than vocal acumen out of opera. We rightfully want good theater, too, and this is where Opera Verdi Europa, on its second tour in this country, fell short – crowding large groups onto the stage, banging props off- stage, presenting rudimentary choreography and using a smoke machine to little dramatic effect.

“Aida,” after all, is particularly rich for theatricality. Its characters are the stuff of myth, with incantations to Isis and proclamations by pharaohs. There’s war, ceremony, love, betrayal and revenge. Aida and Amneris, two women of powerful means – one has love, the other has an important daddy – compete for the devotion of the triumphant warrior Radames. In the end, neither wins, although most consider Aida the heroine because she gets to be buried alive in a tomb with her beloved.

Verdi was commissioned by the Viceroy of Egypt to write the piece to coincide with the 1869 opening of the Suez Canal in Cairo. He missed his deadline, and his other opera “Rigoletto” marked the date. “Aida” was eventually staged in Cairo in 1871. That opening was not nearly as important to Verdi – a European centrist – as the performance in Milan in 1872.

The Italian debut is recorded in history books as an extraordinary event, and subsequent productions of “Aida” have capitalized on that onstage splendor and opulence. Unless it has a carnival in tow, a touring production today is unlikely to have those qualities, and that was true for Opera Verdi Europa.

It’s certainly too much to expect to see elephants marching across the stage and choruses of Egyptian warriors lining up in vast rows. But “Aida” has to have some spectacle, and there simply wasn’t one in this production.

Instead, one two-tiered set morphed into the Royal Palace, a moonlit bank of the Nile and the interior of Radames and Aida’s lover’s tomb. The set changes were lengthy and distracting. Sometimes the curtain in a central entry doorway got stuck, revealing parts of earlier scenery. The draperylike costumes, wobbly props and crooked Cleopatra wigs all worked against this cast, notching grand opera down to goofy. And that doesn’t even begin to approach the tricky issue of wearing black face makeup, black masks with curly wigs and bronze lycra to simulate an “African” look.

By the vocally superior second half of this three-hour show, it was still somehow possible to enjoy the work as live entertainment, particularly when Chanev (Radames) and Lavric (Amneris) were onstage. Or when the 50-piece orchestra led by Georgi Chaprazov was keeping a lively pace. Any criticisms gave way to a general cheering on of the cast. It may have been more akin to community theater than the professional quality opera that ticket buyers expect, but the underlying beauty of Verdi’s opera blazed through in the end, making it easier as the night wore on to forgive the production’s inadequacies.

Alicia Anstead can be reached at 990-8266 and aanstead@bangordailynews.net.