Libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni
Sung in Italian with German surtitles

Premiere on 22 July 2009 - 9.15 p.m., Floating Stage

Duration: 2 ¼ hours without break

Opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni based on a scenario by Auguste Mariette Bey. Sung in Italian with German surtitles.

Aida is one of the most performed operas in the repertoire – a tale of a legendary love stronger than death, and a very modern parable about nationalism, belligerence and hatred of the enemy. Giuseppe Verdi’s monumental opera Aida is returning to the spectacular Floating Stage at Bregenz in summer 2010.

The story of the tragic love between the Ethiopian princess Aida – once brought to the Nile as a slave – and the Egyptian commander Radames was a triumph at its premiere in Cairo in 1871. Since then it has become one of the most popular and most performed works in the entire opera repertoire.

Verdi conceived Aida as an opera that would have no equal. It has grandiose choral scenes and rousing rhythmic marches, gorgeous arias and romantic duets all brought harmoniously together, and their effect is further enhanced by the exotic flavour of the music. The famous triumphal march with its blaring fanfares and stirring choruses is one of the musical and dramatic highpoints of “grand Italian opera”.

Director Graham Vick and stage designer Paul Brown were keen to make use of Lake Constance in Aida, not just as a grand backdrop but as an integral part of the production. With ships and platforms, parts of the stage set that emerge from under the water, and entry points for the performers which are both on and under the water – the stage set for Aida will come into being during the performance itself before the eyes of the audience.

Verdi and the Floating Stage

"Aida is not a desert opera at all: it takes place on the banks of the Nile, and its beautiful 3rd Act evokes in a magical way the Egyptian night beside the great river. All Verdi operas are located in the imagination, not in real spaces. That’s what gives them such theatrical power. And the power of our designs for Aida is that they plunge you straight away into a thrilling work of the imagination." David Pountney, artistic director

David Pountney's own thrilling and highly acclaimed production of Nabucco in the summer of 1993 and 1994 launched what has become a remarkable series of operas by Giuseppe Verdi on the Bregenz Festival's Floating Stage. It has been clear at least since 1999 with the opera A Masked Ball, whose stage sculpture of a giant skeleton leafing through a book attracted attention all over the world, that the Bregenz Floating Stage and Giuseppe Verdi are a perfect match.

The Floating Stage would seem indeed to be the ideal venue for Verdi operas. With their huge choruses, moving mass scenes and dramatic duets, it is as though they were written specifically with the open-air stage in mind, with its great possibilities for imposing sets.

So Aida will be the opera on the Floating Stage for the first time. David Pountney is not the least perturbed by the fact that the Floating Stage stands in a lake and not in a desert. "It's the first time in the Festival's history that this magnificent 'desert opera' has been staged on the shore of Lake Constance, and of course its poses a considerable challenge. But we think we have found a really exciting production concept."