The most popular performance of all time is back! With its combination of love, jealousy and drama, Opera Aida attracted the world for more than a century. Today, the incredible performance comes back to Egypt as it will be showing in the Cairo Opera House from April 17-20, according to the Cairo Opera House Facebook page. However, this time, the performance is Egyptian-made, with the director being the late Abdel-Moneim Kamel and the executive director being Hazem Tayel.
The music will be played by the Cairo Orchestra, and the dances will be performed by the Cairo Ballet team, while the vocals will be performed by the Cairo Opera Choire.
Written by the great Giuseppe Verdi, Aida Opera is a four-act-opera which follows the story of two star-crossed-lovers: Radames, a soon-to-be Egyptian army commander, and Aida, the Ethiopian slave of Princess Amneris – the King’s daughter.
To complicate matters, as operas usually do, Princess Amneris is also in love with Radames.
The story escalates when Aida turns out to not only be of Ethiopian origin, but the daughter of the Ethiopian king, who then fights Radames in battle. Their love is tested exhaustively as Aida is forced to choose between her love for Radames and her sense of duty.
The opera premiered in Cairo in 1871 to a handful of distinguished members of society. It then went on to play in La Scala, Milan, Italy.
The first Aida was played by Teresa Stolz, and the first show was conducted by Giovanni Bottesini. However, Maria Wildmann was Verdi’s favorite and went on to play the role of Aida the most.
The Opera was received in Milan with great enthusiasm and has played all over the world, including in Spain, Germany, Britain, Hungary, the United States, Poland, and Russia.
Most recently, on August 6, 2017, Aida Opera was presented in Salzburg, Austria, by the Iranian video-artist Shirin Neshat.
In March, Egyptians also witnessed a magical performance of Aida at the Pyramids of Giza.
Verdi is an acclaimed Italian composer with his first opera, “Oberto”, having premiered at La Scala in Milan. During this period known as his “galley years”, Verdi created most of his remarkable works, such as “Rigoletto” (1851), “Il Trovatore” (1853) and “La Traviata” (1853), which remain remarkable pieces of opera history today.
He ended his artistic journey by composing two plays by Shakespeare – “Otello” (1887) and “Falstaff” (1893) – which successfully premiered, leaving a significant print in international opera history.
