Verdi's "Aida"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 786, 13 August 1954, Page 21

Verdi's "Aida"

N 1869 the Khedive of Egypt hit on the thought of a new Opera to commemorate the opening of the Suez Canal. Verdi was asked: to compose it, but persistently refused until he read a scenario prepared by the French Egyptologist, August Mariette, about an Ethiopian princess called Aida. The premiére of the opera was delayed by the Franco-Prussian War, and Aida wasn’t performed until Christmas Eve, 1871, when it was put on in Cairo at a new theatre that had been built for it. Aida has been described as the last and greatest of the grand operas, and it exhibits at its best Verdi's inexhaustible melodic inspiration, which was capable of pouring out one tune after another of the quality of the famous tenor solo. "Celeste Aida." A new LP recording of Aida, performed by the Chorus and Orchestra of the Academy of Saint Cecilia, Rome, conducted by Alberto Erede, will be broadcast in a link of the YC stations at 6.50 p.m. on Sunday, August 22. Between the acts John Gray will give a brief evaluation of the work and discuss its importance in the history of opera. The part of Aida is played by Renata Tebaldi (soprano), and her lover Radames by Mario del Monaco (tenor). Nowadays we forget that Aida was written at the command of a foreign potentate to celebrate the completion of a great engineering enterprise, and remember only its dramatic story of the star-crossed lovers, Aida and Radames, who are in love but have no business to be. since both duty and commonsense should have pointed out to them their incompatibility. Aida is the King of Ethiopia’s daughter held in captivity by the Egyptian. court, and Radames is the commander of the tian armies against the Ethiopians. When she persuades him to betray his country and escape with -her to Ethiopia, he agrees to do so, but is in turn betrayed by the Pharoah’s

"ees daughter Amneris, who also loves him. It is not surprising that the opera should end with the death of the lovers, who are buried alive in an airless vault, "the crypt of doom," by the white-robed priests and priestesses of the Temple of Vulcan. The opera is notable for its exotic and at times almost oriental flavour. The chants and hymns of ritual by the Egyptian priests at such moments as that when Radames is consecrated before setting out to fight’ the Ethiopians, the famous march of the long trumpets, and the great choruses in the crowd scenes make a stirring background for the story of the doomed lovers. Two other authors besides Mariette had a hand in the libretto: Camille Du Locle, who drew up a detailed prosesketch in French, and Antonio Ghislanzoni, who finally rendered the drama into Italian verse. Verdi himself took an active interest in the preparation of the libretto at every stage, and was responsible for a number of alterations and improvements.