A particularly tall sand dune serves as the ceremonial podium of the Egyptian King. To evoke a temple, a single grand archway in the massive brick back wall of the arena is lit from within. The opera’s quiet prelude, for example, floats out over a stage filled by an empty desert of sand dunes – a scene of peaceful innocence beneath the starry sky of the Sferisterio. Effective visuals and grand music are much of what Aida has always been about, but this production was especially evocative – perhaps reflecting the experience of both Carrasco and Set Designer Carles Berga working with the visually-driven Catalan theater group La Fura dels Baus. Traveling without intellectual baggage frees the directorial and design team to focus on something more important: the construction of memorable tableaus of sight and sound. At a conceptual level, this creates historical and stylistic chaos, leaving everyone on stage to speak and act as they would in a traditional production. Argentinian Director Valentina Carrasco resets the action to an indistinct time and place in the modern Middle East where Westernized local elites exploit oil revenues, Moslem fundamentalists promote religious orthodoxy, and a foreign underclass does the hard labor. The major virtue of this production is that it has nothing at all novel to say about politics, society, or culture. Italian critics who attended the recent Aida at the Macerata Opera Festival are no exception, spilling much ink parsing its post-colonial subtexts. Opera critics these days typically begin reviews by discussing the philosophical concept behind a new production, often remarking on singing, music and even set design only as apparent afterthoughts. The magic of hearing Italian opera under a night sky in a place seemingly so far from modern annoyances can hardly be found anywhere anymore – and it offers a unique opportunity to rethink even the most traditional of operas. While only a two-hour drive from touristed Tuscany, one meets few foreigners, even in a normal year. It is located in Macerata, an ancient city deep in the Marches. The Sferisterio is a huge colonnaded outdoor amphitheater constructed of stone in the 19th century to house a now-extinct sport. Summer opera in Macerata never fails to satisfy, largely due to the unique venue in which it is performed. (Verdi had been asked to compose an ode for the opening of the Canal, but declined on the grounds that he did not write "occasional pieces".The Macerata Opera Festival celebrates its centenary season this year with the same opera that opened the first season of the festival in 1921: Verdi’s Aida. Contrary to popular belief, the opera was not written to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, nor that of the Khedivial Opera House (which opened with Verdi's Rigoletto) in the same year. Metastasio's libretto Nitteti (1756) was a major source of the plot. ![]() One scholar has argued that the scenario was written by Temistocle Solera and not by Auguste Mariette. ![]() Isma'il Pasha, Khedive of Egypt, commissioned Verdi to write the opera for performance in January 1871, paying him 150,000 francs, but the premiere was delayed because of the Franco-Prussian War. Aida was first performed at the Khedivial Opera House in Cairo on 24 December 1871, conducted by Giovanni Bottesini. Aida (pronounced ) sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette.
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