Aida (Festival de Salzbourg)

In the history of the Salzburg Festival, Verdi’s popular opera Aida
was performed only once, in 1979, staged and conducted by Herbert von
Karajan. For its return, the Salzburg Festival assembled a superb artistic
team, making this production the most sought after and over-booked in the
Festival’s history. The supreme cast was led by Anna Netrebko in the title
role, directed by Iranian-born New York based visual artist Shirin Neshat
and conducted by the world’s finest Verdi conductor, Riccardo Muti.
While Aida is one of the most vulgarized pieces of opera literature, it is at the
same time a deep reflection on the hierarchies of power. Being best-known
for the sonic splendour of its famous “Triumphal Scene”, it is yet amongst
Verdi’s most intimate works when focusing upon the private emotions
experienced by the three victims of a tragic love triangle: Radamès, Egypt’s
victorious captain of the guard, and the two rivalling women who adore him,
the Pharaoh’s daughter Amneris and her Ethiopian slave Aida.