By George Loomis [NY Sun, 17 October 2005]

Twenty years ago, "La Boheme" surpassed "Aida" as the opera most often performed by the Metropolitan Opera. Shorter and easier to cast, the Puccini opera also benefited from Franco Zeffirelli's enduring production, then only three years old. But despite a widely acknowledged shortage of Verdi singers, "Aida" has held its own at the Met in recent years, and big voices were on stage in requisite numbers when the opera made a solid seasonal debut on Friday night.