#Giuseppe verdi aida full

The Milan Amneris, Maria Waldmann, was his favourite in the role and she repeated it a number of times at his request. Verdi had asked her fiancé, Angelo Mariani, to conduct the Cairo première, but he declined, so Giovanni Bottesini filled the gap. Verdi had also written the role of Aida for the voice of Teresa Stolz, who sang it for the first time at the Milan première. He therefore considered the Italian (and European) première, held at La Scala, Milan on 8 February 1872, and a performance in which he was heavily involved at every stage, to be its real première. Although Verdi did not attend the premiere in Cairo, he was most dissatisfied with the fact that the audience consisted of invited dignitaries, politicians and critics, but no members of the general public. The costumes and accessories for the première were designed by Auguste Mariette, who also oversaw the design and construction of the sets, which were made in Paris by the Opéra's scene painters Auguste-Alfred Rubé and Philippe Chaperon (acts 1 and 4) and Édouard Desplechin and Jean-Baptiste Lavastre (acts 2 and 3), and shipped to Cairo. Īida met with great acclaim when it finally opened in Cairo on 24 December 1871. This overture, never used today, was given a rare broadcast performance by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra on 30 March 1940, but was never commercially issued. However, in the end he decided not to have the overture performed because of its-his own words-'pretentious silliness'. He then composed an overture of the ' potpourri' variety to replace the original prelude.

#Giuseppe verdi aida full

Verdi originally chose to write a brief orchestral prelude instead of a full overture for the opera. Radamès (Giuseppe Fancelli) and Aida ( Teresa Stolz) in act 4, scene 2 of the 1872 La Scala European première (drawing by Leopoldo Metlicovitz) Performance history Cairo premiere and initial success in Italy The first opera performed at the Khedivial Opera House, Aida eventually premiered in Cairo on Christmas Eve of 1871. īecause the scenery and costumes were stuck in the French capital during the Siege of Paris (1870–71) of the ongoing Franco-Prussian War, the premiere was delayed and Verdi's Rigoletto was performed instead. Eventually, Verdi agreed to compose an opera based on that story, for 150,000 francs. Khedive Pasha referred Mariette to theatre manager Camille du Locle, who sent Mariette's story idea to Verdi. However, Auguste Mariette, a French Egyptologist, proposed to Khedive Pasha a plot for a celebratory opera set in ancient Egypt. Isma'il Pasha, Khedive of Egypt, commissioned Verdi to write an opera to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal, but Verdi declined. Elements of the opera's genesis and sources Ghislanzoni's scheme follows a scenario often attributed to the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, but Verdi biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz argues that the source is actually Temistocle Solera. Today the work holds a central place in the operatic canon, receiving performances every year around the world at New York's Metropolitan Opera alone, Aida has been sung more than 1,100 times since 1886. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 December 1871, in a performance conducted by Giovanni Bottesini. Aida (or Aïda, Italian: ) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni.