Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium of Michael Mayer’s spectacular new staging, which brings audiences inside the towering pyramids and gilded tombs of ancient Egypt with intricate projections and dazzling animations.

Packed with magnificent choruses, complex ensembles and elaborate ballets, ‘Aida’ never loses sight of its three protagonists.

In a remarkable career spanning six decades in the theatre, Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) composed 26 operas, at least half of which are at the core of today’s repertoire. His role in Italy’s cultural and political development has made him an icon in his native country. The story of ‘Aida’ is thought to be the creation of Auguste Mariette (1821–81), an extraordinary French archaeologist who was the founder of the Egyptian Museum of Cairo. Camille du Locle (1832–1903), who collaborated on the scenario with Mariette and suggested the story to Verdi, had worked with the composer on the libretto of Don Carlos. ‘Aida’s librettist, Antonio Ghislanzoni (1824–93), was a novelist and poet as well as the creator of some 85 libretti.

Opera in 4 acts, sung in Italian, with English subtitles.
220m inc Interval

Tickets £21