Living History

On New Year’s Eve, the Met unveils its first new production of Verdi’s Aida in almost 40 years. For his state-of-the-art take on Verdi’s monumental drama, director Michael Mayer embraces the work’s grand scale and opportunity for spectacle, filling the stage with towering scenery, lavish costumes, and animated projections to present ancient Egypt as it was in the full blush of its youth. Taking on the touchstone title role for her first time with the company is soprano Angel Blue, with Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium. By Christopher Browner

 A team of archeologists unearths a tomb not seen by human eyes for millennia. As they sweep away the cobwebs and cast lantern light onto rows of crumbling hieroglyphs, the faded images begin to glow and leap from the walls, the room takes on color and light, and the audience is transported back through the sands of time to witness a story of passion, treachery, and empires at war. So begins Michael Mayer’s new production of Verdi’s Aida.

“Ever since I was a kid, I was obsessed with ancient Egypt. I loved the visuals and the symbolism. I loved the pomp, the pyramids, the mummies, the hieroglyphics,” says the Tony Award–winning director, who previously created Met stagings of Verdi’s Rigoletto and La Traviata and is also piloting the season-opening premiere production of Jeanine Tesori’s Grounded. “I even managed to get a sarcophagus and a Cleopatra dancer into my Rigoletto. So right away, I was excited about getting to work on a new Aida.”

The epitome of grand opera, Aida was the fulfillment of a longtime dream of Isma’il Pasha, Khedive of Egypt, who had spent years trying to convince Giuseppe Verdi to compose a work for the Khedivial Opera House—which opened with a performance of Rigoletto in 1869 to coincide with the completion of the Suez Canal. But it took the intervention of Auguste Mariette, the French archaeologist whom the Khedive had tasked with overseeing excavations throughout Egypt, to propose the subject that ultimately captured the composer’s interest. Having discovered a number of significant tombs and established the famed Egyptian Museum, Mariette combined his knowledge of the ancient world with a bit of theatrical license to fashion a story that contained all the hallmarks of a great operatic tragedy: two kingdoms locked in an endless cycle of bloodshed; a fraught love triangle comprising an Ethiopian princess enslaved in the pharaoh’s court, the valiant soldier she desires, and the Egyptian princess who is her rival for his affections; a sinister priestly class pulling all the strings; and even the occasional elephant or two. Verdi saw the potential for “a work of vast proportions,” and after enduring delays due to the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, the opera eventually premiered in Cairo on Christmas Eve 1871—with Mariette himself supervising the scenery and costumes.

Left, French archaeologist Auguste Mariette, ca. 1861; right, Mariette (seated with legs crossed) on site in Egypt in 1871

Mariette and Verdi’s vision of ancient Egypt is not without its fair share of anachronisms and inventions—for one thing, the Egyptians would have had no business worshipping in a temple to the Roman god Vulcan, as they do in Act I—but for Mayer, these are all part of Aida’s charm. And the more he researched Mariette’s hand in the opera’s genesis, the more it seemed appropriate to frame the opera as seen through the imaginations of a group of 19th-century Egyptologists exploring a long-forgotten tomb: As they wander from room to room, the story of Aida would unfold before their—and the audience’s— eyes. It all amounts to what the director calls “the biggest thing I’ve ever done.”

Also taking on one of the biggest assignments of her career is the production’s star, Angel Blue, who has already conquered many of the summits of the lyric soprano repertoire at the Met—Violetta in La Traviata, Mimì in Puccini’s La Bohème, and Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen, to name just a few. For her, tackling Aida’s more dramatic vocal demands represents a natural progression in her development as an artist on and off the stage. “Everything that has happened in my life has only made my voice grow and change. I don’t know how to separate life from singing,” she says. “I’m still getting to know Aida, but already I see her a lot like I see myself. And I can really understand her relationship with her father. I had a very close relationship with my dad before he passed away, and even now, I still care deeply about what he would think of me.”

Alongside Blue, the cast reads like a who’s who of today’s most in-demand Verdi singers. As the warrior Radamès, Piotr Beczała adds another heroic tenor role to his already formidable Met career, following memorable recent turns as Don José in Carmen and in the title role of Wagner’s Lohengrin. Fresh off her company debut in last season’s new production of Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, mezzo-soprano Judit Kutasi is Aida’s adversary, Amneris, while baritone Quinn Kelsey, after heralded portrayals of the title character of Rigoletto, returns for his third Met outing as Aida’s father, Amonasro. Subsequent performances in the spring will see soprano Christina Nilsson, mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča, tenor Brian Jagde, baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat, and bassbaritone Eric Owens take over in the principal roles.

A technical rehearsal for Mayer’s new production of Aida

On the podium to marshal the Egyptian multitudes is Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Having conducted more works by Verdi than by any other composer with the company, Maestro Nézet-Séguin has shown a particular penchant for Verdi’s later masterpieces— introducing the five-act French version of Don Carlos into the Met repertory in 2022 and leading last season’s revelatory reimagining of La Forza del Destino. The production also marks his second Verdi collaboration with Mayer, whose 2018 staging of La Traviata inaugurated Nézet-Séguin’s tenure as Music Director. “Being in the rehearsal room with Yannick is so much fun, and I especially love when he’s conducting Verdi. It just feels so alive,” the director says. “Of course, I have my ideas about this opera. I’ve seen it so many times and listened to it over and over again, but I know that once I’m in the room with him, he’s going to reveal a multiplicity of dramaturgical layers.”

Nézet-Séguin is likewise eager to dive into the score—and is especially looking forward to the production’s New Year’s Eve premiere, which marks exactly 15 years since his Met debut. But for all the opera’s grandeur, he is equally attracted to its more delicate moments. “With all these famous tunes, these iconic arias and ensembles, it’s like a collection of greatest hits. And then you have the Triumphal March, which is this big, massive moment right in the center,” he says. “But the great paradox—and the great genius—of this piece is that aside from that particular scene, it’s probably the most intimate of all of have Verdi’s operas. Verdi is the master of not using too much to say what he wants to say.” It’s a balance that Blue also hopes to strike in her interpretation, explaining that “any soprano who wants to sing Aida has to be able to be forte and sing full throttle in the big moments, but she also has to understand the power in the pianissimo.”

To help stage what he, too, sees as simultaneously “grand opera at its grandest” and “a chamber opera at its core,” Mayer has assembled some of his most trusted collaborators. With set designer Christine Jones, he has devised a network of soaring chambers, columns, and statuary to surround the drama. But rather than blocks of weathered sandstone, this ancient Egypt will have lost none of its original vitality, painted in shades of deep lapis lazuli and gold and covered from top to bottom with intricate carvings. And onto this already ornate canvas, Mayer has enlisted Mark Grimmer and the wizards at 59 Productions—with whom he’d previously worked on the Met premiere of Nico Muhly’s Marnie and the Broadway revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch—to project dynamic imagery that will add further dimensions to the storytelling. “They’re not going to totally animate the story for us because that’s what the singers will do,” says Mayer, “but we want it to look as though the hieroglyphs are coming to life. And out of that will come the singers.” Mayer’s creative team also includes costume designer Susan Hilferty—who drew upon both Mariette’s original designs and historical garments from the period—four-time Tony Award–winning lighting designer Kevin Adams, and choreographer Oleg Glushkov.

A technical rehearsal for Mayer’s new production of Aida

“This is going to be grand. Don’t worry, we’re committed.” That’s Nézet-Séguin’s message to audience members wary of the Met replacing its previous production of Aida by Sonja Frisell, a popular favorite since 1988. “I loved that old production too,” adds Mayer, “but I feel like we have a special opportunity to offer the same level of grandeur and spectacle, just with some new techniques that weren’t available 35 years ago. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. We just want to use new tools to celebrate what Aida is—this extraordinary epic on this giant scale, and also this beautiful, very personal story.”

Christopher Browner is the Met’s Senior Editor.