Giuseppe Verdi: Aida

Anna Netrebko, Francesco Meli & Ekaterina Semenchuk star in Shirin Neshat’s production of “Aida” at the Salzburg Festival, conducted by Riccardo Muti.

“Aida” by Giuseppe Verdi is one of the most frequently performed and most beloved operas worldwide. Verdi’s romantic drama about power, passion, jealousy and death is perhaps best-known for the sonic splendour of its famous “Triumph” Scene – a rousing military parade. But Verdi’s grandest opera is also amongst his most intimate, focusing as it does upon the private emotions experienced by the three victims of a tragic love-triangle: Radamès, Egypt’s victorious general, and the two rival princesses who adore him, the Pharaoh’s daughter Amneris and her Ethiopian slave Aida.

At the Salzburg Festival it will be given only its second production since Karajan’s staging in 1979/1980. Riccardo Muti, one of the outstanding Verdi interpreters of our time, will conduct the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor at the Großes Festspielhaus. The production’s stage director is the Iranian film-maker, photographer and video artist Shirin Neshat. Being one of the most important contemporary visual artists, she will now, for the first time, stage an opera.
Anna Netrebko will make her role debut as Aida. The soprano will be joined by Francesco Meli, who previously starred with her in “Giovanna d’Arco,” and ”Il Trovatore” at the Salzburg Festival. Ekaterina Semenchuck will return to the festival in the role of Amneris while Luca Salsi and Dmitry Belosselskiy complete the cast in a production that is expected to be the highlight of the festival.

Giuseppe Verdi: Aida
A co-production of ORF, ZDF/Arte, NHK and UNITEL
Alban Berg: Wozzeck