Anniversary of Verdi's Aida

Egypt Voyager

Giuseppe Verdi was inspired to write AIDA by the wonders of Ancient Egypt, its magnificent pyramids and temples, and its rich heritage. Ismail Pasha, Khedive of Egypt and a great patron of the arts, commissioned Verdi to write an opera for the 1869 inauguration of the 850 seat Theatre de l'Opera that he built in Cairo.

The AIDA of the 2nd Millenium, will be performed in its original setting, at the foot of the pyramids of Giza. AIDA comes back to Cairo, its first audience - for the world to see what had inspired Verdi and for whom it was originally written.

The story was inspired by the eminent French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, whom the Khedive later appointed to supervise its sets and costumes. Camille du Locle, Director of Theatre de l'Opera Comique in Paris, took Mariette's draft of the story in French and conveyed it to Verdi.

Verdi wrote AIDA in four months but its premiere had to be delayed. Mariette, together with all the sets and costumes, were unable to arrive from France in time for the inauguration due to the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, and it was Verdi's Rigoletto that was performed for the inauguration of the Opera House on 1 November 1871. However, at its world premiere in Cairo on 24 December 1871, AIDA was a sensational success. It received a triumphant reception and has remained a favourite in Cairo and worldwide.

http://www.musicwithease.com/verdi-aida.html

Ismail Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt, had built a grand opera-house at Cairo, and, thinking to emulate Western potentates as an art patron, he commissioned Verdi to write an opera expressly for him. It was to be an opera, "if not of a national character, at least of a local nature, and to a certain extent of a patriotic colour." When Verdi accepted the commission, he asked a suggestion for a subject. In reply he received a sketch prepared by Mariette Bey, the great French Egyptologist, based on "historical and archaeological details of very powerful and very novel character." It was only a sketch, but Verdi was impressed by the grandeur of its general design, and by the conception of the judgment scene, to which we owe the strange and powerfully dramatic tableau which forms the denouement. The sketch was handed to M. Du Locle, who prepared the libretto as it now stands; though he declared that Verdi himself had taken a large share in the work, and that the idea of the last Act, with its two stages one above the other, belonged especially to him. The scene is at Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt, and at Thebes, at "the time of the Pharoahs" -- rather an indefinite date.

ACT 1. -- The curtain rises on the garden of the Royal Palace at Memphis. Ramfis, the high priest, enters to announce to Radames, Captain of the Royal Guard, that the Ethiopians are in revolt. The sacred Isis has been consulted, and has named the warrior who is to crush the revolt. Radames, in love with Aida, hopes that he may be the leader chosen by the deity, so that, as his reward, he may have the hand of Aida, the favourite slave of Princess Amneris, daughter of the King. Aida is, however, much distressed at the situation; for the Ethiopian rebels are her kinsmen, and their King, Amonasro, is her father. Moreover, Amneris herself loves Radames; and, his ambition realised (for the deity’s choice had fallen on him), she and her unconscious rival, Aida, speed him on his way to the temple to ask a blessing on his arms.

ACT 2. -- This Act opens in a room in the palace of Amneris. Here Aida confesses her love for Radames. A violent scene of jealousy follows, interrupted by the triumphal return of Radames after a victory over the unfortunate Aida’s father, who appears among a group of prisoners paraded in a procession. The Act ends with the King’s unexpectedly giving his daughter Amneris to Radames, as a reward for his success, much to the distress of Radames, who wished for Aida.

ACT 3. -- Here we have Amonasro begging his daughter to steal from her lover, Radames, the secret of his military plans against the Ethiopians, who have again risen in rebellion. Aida promises, hoping to fly to her own land with her father and her lover. She obtains the secret from Radames, who is at once surprised and denounced by Amneris for his indiscretion.

ACT 4. -- Amneris would now be revenged on Radames. To make a last trial of his affection, she orders the guards to bring him to her presence. She then offers to secure his pardon by the King if he will accept her love. Radames refuses, not caring to have life without Aida. He is therefore sentenced to be buried alive in a vault beneath the temple. Aida voluntarily joins him; and the curtain falls on their lamentations, and the expression of their hopes of meeting in a better world.