Verdi’s Aida: 150 years of magnificence
The Museo Egizio will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the first performance of Aida in Cairo (December 24, 1871) and the first at Teatro alla Scala in Milan (February 8, 1872) with an exhibition entitled "Aida, daughter of two worlds" which will be open for three months, from 17 March to 5 June 2022. The exhibition will deal with the peculiar geopolitical and cultural context from which the work originates and, in particular, the role of the Egyptologist Auguste Mariette (1821-1881) to whom we owe not only the subject of Aida but also the design of the costumes and scenes strictly in the Egyptian style.
The exhibition project covers a period that goes from Mariette's early years (ca. 1842) to the representation of Aida at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan (1872) and it is divided into four sections, organized in chronological succession:
Section 1 (1841-1867) explores Mariette's beginnings as a lecturer, journalist, draftsman and caricaturist, and follows the stages of his Egyptological career, from the discovery of the Memphis Serapeum (1850) to his appointment as assistant curator at the Museum of the Louvre (1855), to the general management of the Service des Antiquitès (1858) and of the Boulaq Museum (1863).
Section 2 (1867-1869) broadens the scenario to the international context of the Paris International Exhibition (1867), with the Egyptian pavilions designed by Mariette, and the opening ceremony of the Suez Canal (1869), for the beginning of the chain of events that will lead to the birth of Aida.
Section 3 focuses on the events of 1870, from the composition and actual production of the opera, narrated in the rich correspondence between Verdi and Ricordi, to the siege of Paris, in which Mariette was also involved, which led to the necessary postponement of the first staging of Aida until the end of 1871.
Finally, section 4 is dedicated to the story of the premiere of the Aida in Cairo (24 December 1871) through the sketches of the scene and costumes by Mariette, the autograph score by Verdi and the story of that evening described in the written travelogue by the music critic Filippo Filippi.