Verdi: Aida (complete opera)
$45.00
Special Order3 - 6 weeks add to cart
GIUSEPPE VERDI
Verdi: Aida (complete opera)
Maria Dragoni, Barbara Dever, Kristjan Johannsson, Riccardo Ferrari / Choirs incl..Musica Sacra; Phoenix Singers; RTÉ Chamber Choir; RTÉ Philharmonic
[ Naxos Opera Classics / 2 CD Box Set ]
Release Date: Tuesday 6 June 1995
This item is only available to us via Special Order. We should be able to get it to you in 3 - 6 weeks from when you order it.
"Maria Dragoni has a fine lyrico soprano distinguished by her ability to float pianissimo high notes ... Barbara Dever's lustrous lyric mezzo is distinguished by technical control...The sound is first rate" Fanfare
"Thanks to the also very properly cast minor roles, one can experience an espressivo vocal feast, representing a revival of the old spirit of the Italian Stage tradition, under the circumspect, effervescent conductorship of Rico Saccani" StereoPlay (Germany)
Verdi wrote his Egyptian opera Aida for performance at the new Cairo opera house, which had opened with a performance of Rigoletto. The story of the enslaved Ethiopian princess Aida and her love for the Egyptian hero Radames, in rivalry with her mistress, the Egyptian princess Amneris, and the death of the first two, has some basis in the Hellenistic Aethiopica of Heliodorus, but was claimed as the original work of Auguste Mariette, known as Mariette Bey. It has been suggested that Temistocle Solera was responsible for the scenario but if this was so, the fact was not known to Verdi, who had quarrelled with Solera in 1846 over the libretto of his opera Attila. The text of Aida was by Antonio Ghislanzoni. The opera was finally staged in Cairo on Christmas Eve 1871 and in February 1872 at La Scala, in both places to very considerable acclaim.
