Max Derrickson

Giuseppe (Fortunino Francesco) Verdi     (b Roncole, near Parma, Italy, October 10, 1813; d Milan, January 27, 1901)

Prelude to Aida

Most opera audiences have grown up believing that Aida was written for the opening of the Suez Canal.
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but the commissioning of Aida did not occur as we have often been told.

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In the 1860’s, after some extraordinary archaeological finds, the famous Egyptologist Auguste-Edouard Mariette claimed to have penned the authentic story of an Ethiopian woman named Aida who is enslaved by her enemies, the Egyptians, while the two countries war.  An Egyptian soldier, Radamis, falls hopelessly in love with Aida, and, of course, the story ends tragically with both lovers dying — Radamis entombed alive for treasonous cavortings, and Aida by her own hand in grief over the death of her true love.

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Its premiere, on December 24, 1871, won instant acclaim and went on to even further accolades in Europe soon after, and Aida’s popularity has never waned since.

The solemn and pensively beautiful Prelude to Aida was said to be Verdi’s answer to his critics who claimed he lacked mastery in counterpoint.  Perhaps an apocryphal tale,
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