Giuseppe Verdi // Aida

The vulnerable protagonists of Aida face an agonising moral dilemma: to what should they be loyal? To their homelands? To their families? Or to their love? The story of the opera is a product of war: not only in its writing, but on the stage as well. The sounds of war resonate throughout the tale of the captive Ethiopian princess and king, and the Egyptian commander brought down by and for love. Although Egypt wins a pyrrhic victory, this triumph desired by so many brings ruin to all who wished for it. This is a story about war, a topic as old as man and which will continue as long as our species. War chooses life or death for millions, divides families and lovers, and permeates warring countries and their people of every order and rank, from pharaoh to slave. But there is one thing that can never be vanquished: the purity of the soul.