Music by ELTON JOHN Lyrics by TIM RICE

Book by LINDA WOOLVERTON,

ROBERT FALLS & DAVID HENRY HWANG

Directed by PETER ROTHSTEIN
Play Guide by Jeff Turner

PRESENTED BY

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TABLE of CONTENTS
Summary of Elton John and Tim Rices Aida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Staging Egypt: European Grand Opera
on the River Nile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Origins of a Musical: The Elaborate Journey of
Elton John and Tim Rices Aida. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The Kingdoms of Nubia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Leontype Price: American Aida. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Tremendous Entertainment!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Play guide written by Jeff Turner, Theater Latt Da Dramaturg,
Associate Professor of Threatre Arts at Hamline University

is being produced as part of Broadway Re-Imagined, a

partnership of Theater Latt Da and Hennepin Theatre Trust,
at the Pantages Theatre.
Music Direction by Jason Hansen
Choreography by Michael Matthew Ferrell
Directed by Peter Rothstein
January 3-27, 2013

SUMMARY of AIDA
- Act I In the Egyptian wing of a contemporary
museum, a young man and woman touring the
exhibit exchange glances as a statue of Amneris,
a female Pharaoh, mysteriously comes to life and
sweeps our museum goers into a compelling
narrative from the past (Every Story Is a Love
Story). Radames, a captain of the Egyptian army,
is returning with his men from an expedition
to map the southern land of Nubia, Egypts
enemy (Fortune Favors the Brave). When
his soldiers display a group of captive Nubian
women, Radames is taken by the strong-willed
Aida, who attempts to free herself by fighting
one of the soldiers. Later, Radames forces Aida
to cleanse his body, but she refuses and calls
upon the spirit of her Nubian home (The Past
Is Another Land). Due to his attraction to Aida,
Radames saves the Nubian women from laboring
in the copper mines and sends Aida to serve as
a handmaiden to his intended bride, Princess
Amneris. Radames father, Chief Minister Zoser,
greets his son with news that the Pharaoh is
dying. The young captain must now prepare
to become the next king of Egypt (Another
Pyramid).
Radamess Nubian servant, Mereb, recognizes
Aida as the daughter of the Nubian king,
Amonasro. She commands Mereb to keep her
identity a secret in fear that the Egyptians
will kill her (How I Know You). Presented to

Austene Van (Aida) and Steven Grant Douglas with Egyptian

soldiers and Nubians. (Photo: Michal Daniel)

Amneris, Aida proves to be astute and capable,

and her sewing skills will be very handy given
the Princess love of fashion (My Strongest
Suit). At a banquet, the Pharaoh tells Amneris
and Radames they are to marry in seven days,
leaving the captain to contemplate his final
days as an explorer (Fortune Favors the Brave
(Reprise)). Together, he and Aida find comfort
in each others dreams of a more adventurous
life (Enchantment Passing Through).

On that evening Amneris worries about her

fathers illness, and she too turns to Aida for
consolation and support (My Strongest Suit
(Reprise)). Bursting into Amneris chamber,
Radames shares a stolen moment of intimacy
with the Nubian princess. Aida is later taken by
Mereb to the Nubian camp where she hesitantly
submits to her peoples desire for her to lead
them (Dance of the Robe). When she begs
Radames to help the Nubians, he reveals great
empathy by giving away his material possessions
(Not Me) and proclaiming his love for Aida
(Elaborate Lives). She too confesses her love
for him. Their moment of joy is disrupted by
reports that soldiers have captured Aidas father,
the King of Nubia, and Radames rushes away to
celebrate their success. Confused and conflicted,
Aida encourages her people and assures them
the spirit of Nubia will never falter (The Gods
Love Nubia).

- Act II -

Aida, Amneris, and Radames are now entangled

in a complex web of conflicting desires (A Step
Too Far). Soon Aida and Mereb bribe their
way into King Amonasros prison cell, where
she is reunited with her father, and the two
develop a plan to escape with the king during
the celebration of Amneris wedding to Radames.
To save her people and their king, Aida must
deceive the man she loves (Easy as Life).
Meanwhile, Zoser commands his son to reject
his feelings for the Nubian slave, but Radames
no longer shares his fathers dangerous appetite
for power (Like Father, Like Son). Afraid he will
Aida Play Guide | 4

News of Amonasros liberation interrupts

Amneris wedding, and Radames learns the
painful truth of Aidas royal blood once he
arrives at the docks. Amid the chaos Mereb is
cut down by Zoser while Radames enables King
Amonasros escape by severing the rope tying
his boat to the dock, but Aida remains behind
to tend to her dying countryman. Realizing his
son is now a traitor to Egypt Zoser flees, and
Mereb dies in the arms of his kind master and
beloved princess. Radames and Aida are soon
arrested for treason against the state, and they
are both sentenced to be buried alive. As the
next Pharaoh, Amneris eloquently convinces
her father to let the lovers die together, and in
the darkness of their tomb, Aida and Radames
turn to each other for strength (Elaborate Lives
(Reprise)). As they are slowly deprived of air
(Enchantment Passing Through (Reprise)),
Radames promises he will search through a
hundred lifetimes to find his one true love.
Austene Van (Aida) with Nubians. (Photo: Michal Daniel)

lose everything, Zoser orders his men to find the

slave girl and have her killed.

At the Nubian camp, Aida receives a written

apology from Radames for his selfish and
thoughtless action upon hearing of King
Amonasros capture (Radames Letter).
When Zosers guards arrive searching for Aida,
another slave, Nehebka, sacrifices herself so
that her princess may live (Dance of the Robe
(Reprise)). Inspired by the moral strength of
her people, Aida, against Merebs strong advice,
is compelled to say one last goodbye to Radames
(How I Know You (Reprise)). When Radames
announces he is calling off the royal wedding,
Aida worries this will sabotage the plan for her
fathers escape and compels Radames to accept
his destiny (Written in the Stars). Radames is
willing to forsake his love but only if Aida will
accept one of his boats for safe passage out of
Egypt. As the star-crossed lovers part, Amneris
emerges from the shadows having overheard
their conversation and is haunted by fact that
her impending marriage is little more than a
hollow fiction (I Know the Truth).

As the story sweeps back into the contemporary

museum, which has served throughout as a site
of dramatic transformation, the spirit of Amneris
declares that under her leadership, the lovers
deaths promoted peace between the ancient
kingdoms of Egypt and Nubia. Amneris watches
as the young man and woman who have been
caught up in the storytelling as if in a dream are
now strangely drawn to each other, recognizing
something haunting and eternal that feels like
the beginning of a new adventure (Every Story
is a Love Story (Reprise)).

Jared Oxborough (Radames) and Austene Van (Aida)

(Photo: Michal Daniel)

Aida Play Guide | 5

STAGING EGYPT:

EUROPEAN GRAND OPERA ON THE RIVER NILE

Though first performed in Cairo in 1871, the
origins of Giuseppe Verdis opera Aida can be
linked to a much larger project to articulate
Egyptian national identity under the reign
of Ismail Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt and
Sudan who ruled from 1863 to 1879 under the
auspices of the Ottoman Empire. Four years
earlier, Khedive Ismail presented a lavish series
of architectural spaces in a corner of Pariss
Champs du Mars for the International Exposition
of 1867. Designed by French Egyptologist
Auguste Mariette, who served the Khedive as
Director of Antiquities, the Egyptian Pavilion
included an elaborate and spectacular depiction
of Egypts past and present. Visitors could view
ancient archeological artifacts, tour a replica
of a pharaohs palace, behold a panorama of
the Isthmus of Suez and mix and mingle with
authentic Egyptian peasants, Arabic Bedouins
and assorted artisans and merchants at the
reconstruction of a modern-day bazaar. Perhaps
most extravagant was the recreation of the
Al Musafir Khana Palace where, according to
scholar Katherine Bergeron, the Khedive, who
had been educated in Paris, was the featured
attraction: poised on a divan in a bedroom
painted to look exactly like the place of his birth,
he smoked a hookah
and daily received
guests from the best
Parisian society. The
Egyptian Pavilion
was an unmitigated
success, and Ismail

Above: Giuseppe Verdi

Right: Khedive Ismail

Pasha, staging Egypt for European cultural

consumption, made a grand international
statement, projecting a newly modernized Egypt
onto the global stage as a major geopolitical
player.

At home Khedive Ismail continued to invest in

Egyptian cultural production, constructing the
Khedivial Opera House in Cairo to celebrate the
opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. He requested
Camille du Locle, a French librettist and assistant
to the director of the Opra de Paris, to approach
Verdi in 1868 to commission an ode or hymn for
the inauguration of the canal to be performed
in the new building. Verdi refused the request
as he did not write occasional pieces. Perhaps
another reason was a lack of enthusiasm for
the country and its history. In an 1868 letter
to du Locle, who had recently returned from
travels to Cairo, Verdi wrote: When we see
each other, you must describe all the events of
your voyage, the wonders you have seen, and
the beauty and ugliness of a country which
once had greatness and a civilization I had
never been able to admire. Undeterred, and
obviously unaware of Verdis personal opinions,
Ismail opened the Khedivial Opera House on
November 1, 1869 with a production of Verdis
Rigoletto, and, in 1870, the Khedive asked du
Locle to approach Verdi once again to write a
grand opera on Egyptian themes. This time
the Egyptian government offered the composer
150,000 French francs in gold. Verdi accepted
the commission.
The libretto for Aida was based on a French
scenario written by Auguste Mariette (who
would design the scenery, costumes and
jewelry for the Cairo production). Mariettes
text was expanded by Verdi and du Locle and
then translated into Italian verse by Antonio
Ghislanzoni. Set in a darkly Romanticized vision
of Ancient Egypt, the dramatic action focuses
on an intimate love triangle between three
principle characters: Amneris, the daughter of a
Aida Play Guide | 6

pharaoh; Aida, an Ethiopian princess enslaved

by Amneris; and Radames, the Egyptian
commander whose love for Aida is complicated
by the love Amneris feels for him. In June 1870
Verdi began to compose the music for a world
premiere in January 1871, but the performance
was delayed due to the Franco-Prussian War.
Aida opened in Cairo on December 24, 1871 to
great acclaim though Verdi did not attend. The
composer played a much greater role in staging
the European premiere of the opera at the
Teatro alla Scala in Milan on February 8, 1872.
There the role of Aida would be performed by
soprano Teresa Stolz for whom Verdi originally
wrote the music. According to opera historians
Donald Jay Grout and Hermine Weigel Williams,
Aida was in every respect the culmination of
Verdis art up to that time, uniting the melodic
exuberance, the warmth and color of the Italians
with the pageants, ballets and choruses of
grand opera. Aida is Italian opera made heroic,
grand opera imbued with true human passion,
a fusion to two great nineteenth-century styles.
As a work of Egyptian cultural propaganda
Aida was also a success, though something
of a harbinger for things to come. Historian
Paul Robinson has written that Verdis opera
was purchased to entertain the European
population of Cairo, a population whose real
purpose was to administer Egypt as a piece of
Europes overseas empire. Administer they
did. Debt incurred by infrastructure projects to
industrialize and modernize Egypt, compounded
by Khedive Pashas extravagant spending habits
and a costly war with Ethiopia from 1874 to
1876, left Egypt vulnerable to European banks.
Following the default on loans in 1876, an AngloFrench agency intervened to take control over
government finances, and Ismail Pasha was
forced out of office by the Ottoman Empire in
1879. A military revolt against the Europeans
and their Egyptian allies led by Egyptian
nationalist Ahmad
Urabi was defeated
by British forces
in 1882, leading to
British occupation
of Egypt until 1954.
In the wake
of European

Poster to the 2010 performance of Verdis Aida at

the Pyramids produced by the Cairo Opera House

occupation, Verdis Aida continued to be

performed at the Khedivial Opera House until it
was destroyed by fire in 1971. Following years
of instability, the opera reemerged to great
acclaim in 1987 in an outdoor performance at
the Pyramids of Giza an elaborate spectacle
involving 1,600 artists which played for eight
consecutive nights to a total of 27,000 spectators
from Egypt and abroad. In 1988 the opera
returned to the newly constructed Egyptian
Opera House, part of Cairos National Cultural
Center, where it continues to be performed every
year.

Above: International Exposition of 1867

Left: Khedivial Opera House in 1869

Aida Play Guide | 7

ORIGINS OF A MUSICAL:
THE ELABORATE JOURNEY OF AIDA

After the enormous success of Walt Disney

Pictures animated musical The Lion King in
1994 and the aesthetic, critical and box-office
triumph of Julie Taymors theatrical adaptation
of the Disney film which has been a Broadway
box-office juggernaut since October 1997, Elton
John, along with lyricist Tim Rice, was looking
to collaborate on something dangerous, darker,
more dramatic and adult. Give me something
harder was his request to Disney executives.
The idea of adapting Verdis Aida for the big
screen as an animated musical was suggested
as Disney had previously secured the rights to
a storybook version of the opera written by the
great American soprano Leontyne Price. John
was intrigued but wanted to focus his energies
on a project specifically conceived for the
stage. Disney executives were worried. Would
Broadway audiences want to attend a musical
based on an Italian opera? Unlike previous
offerings from Disney Theatrical Productions,
Verdis Aida had no built-in audience, the
characters were not cuddly and cute, marketing
the production could be problematic. According
to Advertising Age: When Disney research
revealed that relatively few people were
familiar with Verdis workand that those
who knew it were receptive to a new musical
interpretationthe opera issue ceased to be a
major concern. Elton John had found his newest
project.
John was especially drawn to the operas tragic
narrative of cross-cultural love. Its one of
our Achilles heels to judge people because of
creed, denomination, or what color they are,
and this cuts through all of that, John argues.
The love story between the slave-princess Aida
and her Egyptian captor Radames is all about
forgiveness and finding yourself and being
nonjudgmental about others. Its a very strong
message that has never been more relevant
than today, with so much ethnic hatred in the
world. It was also a huge challenge. This kind
of project made me feel scared, because you can

really fall flat on your face, says John. If you

dont get scared, then theres no point. Its very
necessary for an artist to get that kind of feeling.
Still, being completely honest, John notes: Tim
and I didnt give it much thought, actually; we
just said yes. Its such a great story, and it was
too interesting and too challenging to turn
down. Id never done anything especially for the
stage before, so it was a first for me, something
completely different.
Elton John and Tim Rice immediately began
writing 21 songs for the production. Working
from Rices lyrics, the score, including all
instrumental music, was completed over 21
nonconsecutive days. Writing for Aida was
different because it was done in running order,
which was very beneficial, John recalls. You
have an outline for a story, so you know what
song follows what. We wrote the first song
first and the last song last; that gave me a great
idea of what differences should be in shade
and texture and tempo. When it pours out like
that, you know youve got something of quality
because youre not having to fight it all the time.
It was like writing for The Lion King; I knew it
was good.

The first iteration of the musical, Elaborate

Lives: The Legend of Aida, was directed by Robert
Jess Roth with a book by Linda Woolverton
(both had worked together on Disneys stage
adaptation of Beauty and the Beast) and
premiered at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta,
Georgia in September 1998. Critical response
suggests the show was a kitchy disappointment.
Writing for Variety, Christopher Isherwood was
impressed with the infectious pop-rock score
but was underwhelmed by most everything else.
Traditional glitz and glitter are everywhere;
imagination and subtlety largely absent. Most
egregious was a laser-controlled origami
pyramid that spins and folds and rises to create
various playing areas. Elton John suggests the
production wasnt right. It was too flippant,
Aida Play Guide | 8

too Las Vegas. The shows most Vegas-worthy

element, the six-ton pyramid designed by
Stanley A. Meyer, was a technological failure.
The bloody thing broke down during 75 percent
of the performances, says John. When that
happened the cast would sit on chairs and act
out the songs.
After the unusual yet shrewdly strategic
release of an all-star soundtrack in March 1999
(featuring 14 songs from the show recorded by
John along with performers Sting, Janet Jackson,
James Taylor, Spice Girls, Boyz II Men, Tina
Turner and Lenny Kravitz), a heavily-revised
version of the musical opened in Chicago in
November 1999. Robert Falls had taken over
as director, Wayne Cilento was selected as
choreographer and Bob Crowley designed new
sets and costumes. Playwright David Henry
Hwang was brought on to work with Falls on
Woolvertons original libretto as a creative
consultant (the three now share equal billing).
In an effort to distance the musical from other
Broadway productions adapted from popular
Disney animated films, The Walt Disney
Company created a new subsidiary, Hyperion
Theatricals, to distinguish the project as a
sophisticated work of entertainment for grownups.
The musical, now titled Elton John and Tim
Rices Aida, opened on Broadway in March
2000. Critical opinion was decidedly mixed

Lyricist Tim Rice

though Heather Headleys star turn as Aida

received glowing praise. Ben Brantley at the
New York Times was enchanted with Headleys
performance but was far, far less effusive about
the production as a whole. He writes: Its not
an out-and-out clunker like the stage version of
Saturday Night Fever. But it seems stranded in
its own candy-colored limbo, thrashing between
childish silliness and civic preachiness, between
campy spoof and tragic tear-jerker, between
two and three dimensions. Writing for Time

Composer Elton John

Magazine, Richard Zoglin was more enthusiastic.

He writes, taken on its own terms, Aida is a
big, bright, ingeniously staged show thatnot
going too far out on a limb hereshould be
Broadways next monster hit. Time would
later include the show on its top ten theatre
productions of the year. Nominated for five Tony
Awards, the musical would win four (including
the Tony Award for Best Original Musical Score
for John and Rice and Best Actress in a Musical
for Headley). In addition, the original cast
recording would win a Grammy Award for Best
Musical Show Album. In the end, Elton John
and Tim Rices Aida would entertain audiences
for over four years and 1,852 Broadway
performances and continues to be a popular
favorite in regional, college and high school
theatres throughout America.
Aida Play Guide | 9

THE KINGDOMS OF NUBIA

In Giuseppe Verdis Aida the central character
is referred to as an Ethiopian princess, yet the
book and lyrics for Elton John and Tim Rices
Aida identifies Aida as Nubian. Why the change?
There has never been a single nation called
Nubia, and the word does not appear in any
Ancient Egyptian text. Since the Middle Ages,
however, the toponym Nubia has been utilized
by historians and anthropologists in the West
to describe that portion of the Nile Valley that
lies immediately upriver from Egypt a 700 mile
region, in what is now the Republic of the Sudan,
between the frontier city of Swenet (or modern
day Aswan) in the north and the geographic area
in the south where two major tributaries the
Blue Nile and the White Nile meet to form
the single great River Nile (an area where the
modern city of Khartoum is located). Amid the
dry and hot desert landscape, the Nile has always
provided sustenance as a source of water, food
and transport. It flows through six areas known as

Nubian Region in the Nile River Valley, including the six Cataracts

Cataracts, traditionally numbered from north to

south, where the river valley narrows and jagged,
craggy outcrops produce islands, sweeping rapids,
and waterfalls. The work of American archeologist
George A. Reisner suggests this land area was
initially populated by immigrants (what Reisner
refers to as A-Group People) who settled along
the river from 3700 to 2800 BCE due to the dark
grey mud, silt or black land which proved to
be fertile soil for agricultural success. Here one
could cultivate wheat, barley, dates, millet, and
sorghum. The savannas and deserts on both sides
of the river were also integral to such settlements,
supplying raw materials such as gold and copper
as well as areas for tending animals. King Sneferu,
the first pharaoh of the 4th Dynasty in what is
known as the Egyptian Old Kingdom (2686-2181
BCE), is said to have been the first to raid the
region, bringing back 7,000 slaves as a preemptive
strike to ward off further settlements, but the
population continued to grow. A second wave
of immigrants referred to as the C-Group People
began developing settlements on the west bank
of the Nile abundant land located between the
First and Second Cataracts from 2300 to 1600 BCE.
According to Reisner, the C-Group People were
smaller in stature and had darker skin than their
northern neighbors.
Pharaonic Egyptians referred to the lands south
of their border by the term Ta-Seti or land of the
bow due to the skilled and fierce archers who
inhabited the region. Though Ancient Egypt would
harness their military might to campaign against
the people in Ta-Seti, promoting commerce and
trade routes as well as taking advantage of the
regions many natural resources and slave labor,
there were also times of great peace between
Egypt and the kingdoms which comprised its
southern neighbors. Although at times the
kingdoms which constituted what many refer to as
Nubia were trade partners and many men from the
region served in the Egyptian army, the two lands
were also great adversaries. In its need to construct
an other against which it could define itself,
Egyptian hegemony made the people of the Upper
Nile Valley one of its central enemies. Egyptian
Aida Play Guide | 10

texts used the standard phrase vile

Kush to refer to the most powerful early
Nubian kingdom, and Egyptian visual
arts often stereotyped the people from
the south so they appeared primitive
and uncivilized. The Kingdom of the
Kush, however, eventually accumulated
great power and conquered Egypt,
reigning over their northern neighbors
from 760 to 656 BCE.
During the 5th century BCE, Ancient
Greek historians referred to the land
south of Egypt as Aethiopia as
Aethiopes in Greek signified BurntFaced Ones and this term was still in
common usage in the West when Verdi
was composing his grand Egyptianthemed opera. Though more of a 20th century
designation, the origin of the term Nubia is highly
contested though most scholars will acknowledge
it was first introduced by the French during the
Middle Ages to name the land of two competing
Christian kingdoms which occupied the Upper Nile
Valley from the 6th through the 15th centuries of
the current era. Some have argued the word was
derived from the Egyptian term for a dark-skinned
southerner (nehesiu) while others have suggested
the word is based on the Egyptian word for gold
(nub). It is highly possible that Nubia was derived
from the Roman word Nubatae for the Nuba
people a powerful tribe of nomadic warriors
who lived in the western deserts and were invited
by the Emperor Diocletian to enter the region in
297 CE to battle another tribal faction. The Nuba
people as well as the Kingdoms of Makuria and

Alwa would be converted to Christianity in the 6th

century CE though Islamic forces would eventually
drive out Christianity by the 16th century. Today,
the vast majority of the people who occupy the
Nubian region is currently Muslim, and the Arabic
language is their main medium of communication.
Additionally, tribal-specific indigenous languages
continue to be spoken.

Top, Center, Left: The First Cataract just south

of Aswan, a city in southern Egypt.

Aida Play Guide | 11

LEONTYNE PRICE:
AMERICAN AIDA

The American soprano most

associated with the role of Verdis
Aida is Leontyne Price. The
daughter of a lumber mill worker
and midwife, Price was born in
Laurel, Mississippi in 1927. She
studied music at Central State
College in Wilberforce, Ohio with
the desire to become a teacher,
but her natural talent led to a
performance scholarship at the
Julliard School in New York City.
In 1952 Price was cast as Bess
opposite William Warfield in
a revival of George and Ira Gershwins opera
Porgy and Bess (with a libretto written by
DuBose Heyward). Sponsored by the U.S. State
Department, the production toured America and
Europe. In 1955 Price sang the lead in Puccinis
Tosca on NBC-Opera, becoming the first AfricanAmerican to perform a leading role in televised
opera. For her European debut in 1958, Price
sang Aida under the direction of Herbert von
Karajan at the Vienna Staatsoper. In 1960 she
performed Aida at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan;
the first African-American to sing a leading role
in the renowned Italian opera house. After a
great deal of hard work building her reputation
on both sides of the Atlantic, Price made her
debut at New Yorks Metropolitan Opera
House on January 27, 1961, performing the
role of Leonora in Verdis Il Travatore to great
acclaim. Her performances of Aida, as well as a
remarkable series of debuts which few sopranos
have ever been able to match in the history of
the Met, led to Price being selected to grace the
cover of Time Magazine. Still, it is the character
of Verdis Ethiopian princess with which Price
has been most associated. Writing for the New
York Times, Raymond Ericson described Prices
success in the role as unfailingly musical,
spelling out the long Verdian line with every
nuance, avoiding any effect for its own sake.
Throughout the production her voice sounds
infinitely lovely, luminous and clear. Price would

Leontyne Prices final performance of Aida in 1985 at the

Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.

continue to perform throughout the world until

1985 when she retired from the stage after a
performance of her signature role at the Met.
Looking back on her career as she prepared to
publish a storybook version of Verdis opera
in 1990 (in collaboration with illustrators
Leo and Diane Dillon), Price articulated the
significance of the character to which she
would be always connected. She writes: Aida
as a heroine and Aida as an opera has been
meaningful, poignant, and personal for me. In
many ways, I believe Aida is a portrait of my
inner self. She was my best friend operatically
and was a natural for me because my skin was
my costume. This fact was a positive and strong
feeling and allowed me freedom of expression,
of movement, and of interpretation that other
operatic heroines I performed did not. I always
felt, while performing Aida, that I was expressing
all of myself - as an American, as a woman, and
as a human being. . . . Aida has given me great
inspiration onstage and off. Her deep devotion
and love for her country and for her people her
nobility, strength and courage all are qualities
I aspire to as a human being. I will never forget
her.
Aida Play Guide | 12

TREMENDOUS ENTERTAINMENT!
Giuseppe Verdis Aida is one of the most
performed operas in the world. At the
Metropolitan Opera located in the Lincoln Center
for the Performing Arts in New York City, Aida has
been performed 1130 times (from November 1886
through December 2012). Only Giacomo Puccinis
La Bohme has been performed more often. Given
its great popularity, it is surprising this story has
not been adapted into different mediums. Before
Elton John and Tim Rice took on the material in
1997, the only other adaptation was a 1953 Italian

film directed by Clemente Fracassi and featuring

the screen debut of Sophia Loren (who lip-synched
to Renata Tebaldis voice). Given the promotional
materials, the kitsch factor seemed to be on hyperdrive (scholar Marcia J. Citron described it as a
third-rate imitation of Hollywood Bible-epics):
Now it comes alive on the screen! A grand drama
of passion and power . . . of the love of two women
for one man in Ancient Egypt! A cast of thousands!
Superb voices! Wonderful performances! One of
the memorable experiences of your lifetime!

The poster for the 1953 film adaptation of Aida

starring Sophia Loren as the title role.

Aida Play Guide | 13

PRESENTED BY

LatteDa.org

HennepinTheatreTrust.org