Aida Study Guide GUISEPPE VERDI The performances this season will take place on October 2, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, November 2, 5, 2010. Book your school group tickets now! Call COC Group Sales at 416-306- 2356 or e-mail
[email protected]. Sung in Italian with English SURTITLES™ Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 New Production Table of Contents Page Content 2 Background & Characters 3 Synopsis 5 Giuseppe Verdi, A Brief Biography 6 The Life & Times of Giuseppe Verdi 7 Verdi's Music 9 What to Look For 12 How the Opera Came to Be 13 Modern-Day Slavery 14 Listening Guide 18 Exploring Patriotism, Lesson Plan Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 coc.ca Aida Study Guide Background & Characters Historical Background Aida was written for the two-year-old Cairo Opera House in 1871. Previously the composer Giuseppe Verdi had rejected the offer to write an inaugural hymn for the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 but the Khedive (Ismail Pasha, the Viceroy of Egypt for the Ottoman Empire and a fan of all things European) was determined to commission a mag- nificent opera to open the new opera house in Cairo. Verdi wouldn't do this either, so the new opera house opened with Verdi's existing Rigoletto in 1869. A director/librettist Camille du Locle persuaded Verdi to take on a future commission with a little psychology 101. He told him that if Verdi didn't want the job, German composer Richard Wagner might be interested and would probably do a very good job with it! He also told Verdi that the Khedive would be willing to give him almost anything: "If you were to ask for a pyramid (the biggest one, of course) as a bonus, he's just the sort of person who might give it to you." Verdi wrote Aida for the Cairo Opera House and the opera premiered there on December 24, 1871.