Aida has long epitomized opera at its most extravagant—think sweeping sets, luxurious costumes, and even real-live horses—an experience intended to transfix the audience with grandeur.
A beloved version of that scale helmed the Met for more than three decades, so staging a new production of Aida, a tale of love, war, and loyalty set in ancient Egypt, was a tall order.
“Because Aida is so big and so expensive… I did definitely feel the pressure of that,” director Michael Mayer told AFP in a recent interview of his production that premiered this month, adding that “I knew that there were audiences who wanted the big spectacle.”
Verdi’s Aida also has long faced criticism of Orientalism, that it offers an exoticized, reductive view of Egypt through an othering Western lens.
Addressing that was among Mayer’s tasks—to “acknowledge, even in a gentle way, the kind of imperialism and colonialism associated with a kind of fetishization of ancient Egypt,” he told AFP.
“When you look at the history of Grand Opera, you see a lot of operas that are set in exotic locales,” he said, citing Aida along with Madama Butterfly, set in Japan, and Turandot, set in China, as prime examples.
“There’s the sense that those cultures could be fetishized. We appreciate the beauty of them, but in modern times now, I think we’re all much more conscious of Orientalism and colonialism and imperialism and the idea that these cultures were taken apart and reappropriated—and potentially inappropriately so,” Mayer said.
“And I think that contemporary audiences are not going to just swallow it hook, line, and sinker without some kind of acknowledgement that there’s a complexity involved.”
Mainstream critics of the new production have been, well, critical, but refreshing a pillar of traditional opera is a delicate balance, Mayer said.
Part of that balance is toeing the line between reaching new operagoers and satisfying the old guard—or, how to revamp a traditional opera for a contemporary age without losing what made it adored.
And on top of that, it has to have staying power—a staple of the repertoire that can satiate audiences for seasons to come.
Mayer’s approach to the piece involves presenting it through the eyes of a team of archaeologists unearthing an ancient tomb before the tale of star-crossed lovers, warring empires, and treason unfolds in full color. AFP
