|
THE GENESIS OF AÏDA
Although it is sometimes reported that Verdi composed Aïda for the opening of the Suez Canal, this is not true. The Khedive of Egypt planned to open a new opera house in Cairo during the festivities celebrating the 1869 inauguration of the Canal. He had asked Verdi to write an ode to commemorate the occasion, but the composer declined. He was not interested in such a project and Egypt had to settle for a performance of Rigoletto.
Meanwhile, the Egyptologist Auguste Mariette (see below), had been working on a story set in ancient Egypt, hoping it would become an opera. He approached his friend, du Locle, about writing a libretto based on his scenario and finding a composer to set it to music. He preferred Verdi but would settle for Gounod or Wagner! At the time, Verdi was more interested in trying a comic opera, but du Locle persisted, offering to supervise the production himself to save Verdi a trip to Cairo, and telling him how anxious the Khedive was for Verdi to do the composition. Finally, du Locle sent the composer a copy of Mariette’s synopsis and Verdi succumbed. He wrote: “It is well made; the setting is splendid and there are one or two situations which, if not entirely novel are certainly fine.…Behind it all is the hand of an expert”. He requested a huge fee, the Khedive acceepted without hesitation, and the commission was finalized. Du Locle worked on the libretto in French prose, Verdi and his wife translated it into Italian, and Ghislanzoni rewrote it in verse.
Plans were made to premier the work in January 1871, but the Franco-Prussian war intervened. All communications with Paris were cut off and Mariette, who had traveled to Paris to supervise the preparations, was stuck there with the designs, costumes and properties. Du Locle even had to send his letters to Verdi by balloon. Eventually the situation was resolved, and the first performance was held on December 24, 1871, more than two years after the opening of the Suez Canal and Cairo Opera House. It was an enormous success, having been sold out long in advance. Tickets were scalped for huge amounts of money. As a reward, Verdi was made a Commendatore of the Ottoman Order. Most of the audience were Europeans but, among them, were ladies of the Khedive’s harem (14 wives and many concubines), who occupied boxes curtained with thick white muslin.
Aïda opened in Milan on February 8, 1872. Verdi was very involved with the details of its preparation, giving detailed instructions on the composition of the orchestra and chorus as well as the principals. Once, when questioned about an instruction, he said, ”You will do as I say, because I am Verdi”. He had the orchestra pit lowered so the harps and double basses would not obstruct the view. He was called before the curtain thirty-two times, yet felt very dissatisfied at the reception, especially by the critics who complained of Verdi’s “Germanism”. He knew how good Aïda was, even if his critics did not.
THE KHEDIVE
 Ismail Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt (right), was educated in France, and undertook a number of diplomatic missions for his predecessor and even, like Radamès, led an army of 14,000 to suppress a slave rebellion in the Sudan (Ethiopia of the opera). Under his rule, Egypt was modernized with the building of bridges, railways, canals, and with new telegraph and postal systems. The legal code was updated, new schools were built and Cairo became the leading commercial center of North Africa and the Middle East. He admired Italian music, especially that of Verdi, and the opera house was the last word in luxury and splendor. He once said, “My country is no longer in Africa. I have made it part of Europe”.
 AUGUSTE FERDINAND FRANÇOIS MARIETTE (1821-81) was an Egyptologist who at first worked for the Louvre Museum in Paris. In 1849-50, he journeyed to Egypt to visit monasteries and to look for ancient Coptic (Egyptian Christian) manuscripts. Although the monasteries closed their door to him, he was not disappointed. His real goal all along had been to visit the ruins and to excavate. While in Cairo, he saw many sphinxes in the shops and was told they came from the Saqqare necropolis near Memphis. Excited because he had read Strabo’s description of a temple with many buried sphinxes, he explored the area. Almost by accident, he discovered the sphinx-lined avenue which leads to the Serapeum, the underground galleries where the Apis bulls were buried. Although there is no evidence that anyone was ever buried alive in Ancient Egypt, it is thought that these tombs may have inspired the idea of the tomb in which Radamès and Aïda are buried alive. Mariette used funds intended for the purchase of manuscripts to hire diggers and, without even asking for permission, started to excavate. Other finds followed, and he was employed by the Khedive and put in charge of the excavations throughout Egypt. He lived with his wife and children in a hovel infested with snakes, tarantulas, scorpions and other creatures, but he seemed indifferent to these discomforts. Among his more famous discoveries was the “Table of Saqqara” which showed the cartouches of the ancient Egyptian kings. In addition, he started the antiquities service for the government, helped write new laws, and created the first museum in Egypt which dealt with its ancient past.
One of the incentives for writing the story for Aïda was the hope that he could take his wife and children to Paris where he would be a consultant on the project. The Khedive approved the synopsis for the opera, and Mariette wrote to his friend, the librettist Camile du Locle:
Now, if the scenario seems to you suitable, and you agree to do the libretto, and if you find a composer, this is what you must do. You must write to me that the subject chosen is so archaeologically Egyptian and Egyptological that you can’t write the libretto without a full-time policeman at your side; and besides, my presence in Paris is absolutely necessary for the decors and costumes....If I could get to Paris this summer, my goal will have been attained.
Mariette gave his permission for any changes that du Locle might find necessary and added, “Aïda is a Egyptian name. By rights is should be Aïta, but the name would be too harsh, and the singer would inevitable soften it into Aïda”. Amonasro was the name of a real king of Meroë (in what is now the Sudan). Radamès and Ramfis sound Egyptian but there is no actual evidence for these particular names.
After the Franco-Prussian War, Mariette returned to Egypt and was make Conservator of Ancient Monuments to the Khedive. He is buried there, in the main square of Cairo, near the museum he founded.
 The people called Ethiopians by Mariette were actually the occupants of Kush or Nubia in what is now the Sudan. They had been given the name Ethiopians by the ancient Greek writers, and the confusion persisted until fairly recently. Even when he knew that certain details were historically incorrect, Mariette allowed their use for the sake of musical impact. For example, although there would have been no priestesses in the Temple of Ptah, he gave them his approval. He designed costumes such as the one for the King shown on the right, and even described their dances and music!. He was more interested in having the opera present an idealization of Egyptian antiquity than for it to be absolutely historically accurate. Yet he did write, "it is absolutely essential that there are no beards or moustaches.…I consider this a matter of life and death in the opera."
Not all of the inconsistencies were Mariette's fault. Our understanding of ancient Egypt has changed considerably in the last hundred years. Yet, because of these inconsistencies, people have tried to ascribe the story to others, adding that it had too much polish to have been written by an amateur. In fact, he may not have invented it at all, merely modified what he found in The Book of Ethiopian Women, by the third century A.D. Heliodorus. As an Egyptian scholar, he was probably acquainted with this book. The story as summarized by M.J. Phillips-Matz (Opera News, Dec. 21, 1991), is as follows.
Much of the action takes place in the Royal Palace in Memphis, the Temple of Isis, the dungeons or prisons of the city, and in Thebes. The novel ends in Ethiopia. The characters include two princesses, one an Ethiopian slave to the other, both in love with a warrior. The royal princess, like Amneris, discovered the secret love between the Ethiopian slave princess and the warrior by watching them together. She tries to persuade the warrior to love her instead. The slave princess and the warrior escape and make their way up the Nile to Thebes, where the ruler of Egypt is preparing for war with the King of Ethiopia. The expedition is being planned, gods invoked, prayers offered. The triumphal scene in The Book of the Ethiopian Women takes place not in Egypt but in Meroë, for the Ethiopian king is victorious over the Egyptians. Among the prisoners are the Ethiopian princess and her lover. She then proves her identity to her parents and they are reunited. The princess and her warrior lover are designated as the legitimate successors to the throne of Ethiopia.
Another source which has been suggested is Nitteti, a libretto by Metastasio, which was set to music by over 30 composers, and given hundreds of performances in Europe. It is set in Egypt at the time of its subjugation by the Persians and Mariette may have known the story.
 
ANTONIO GHISLANZONI (1824-1893) (left) started to study for the priesthood but left the seminart at 15 and studied medicine. When he discovered he had a good voice, he turned to music. In 1848 he founded two republican journals and, as a result, was arrested and deported to Corsica. When he was released, he returned to singing and later became a journalist and critic. When Verdi asked him to do the Aïda libretto, he was delighted and traveled to Sant’Agata to work with the maestro. He first met Verdi in 1849 and, in 1869, collaborated with him on the opera La forza del destino. He wrote many other works, but few are remembered today.
CAMILLE DU LOCLE (1832-1903) (right) was the son of a French sculptor. He began his career by translating the libretti of others and provided the synopsis and French translation of Aïda. In 1871, the year of the première, he became the Director of the Paris Opéra-Comique. There he is best remembered at the director of Bizet’s Carmen.EAO
|