La Scala's toughest critics gave a standing ovation. Your move, cynic.
Any performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida at La Scala, Milan, is guaranteed to be an experience – but, when it’s a new production, it becomes a major event, especially given the theatre’s notoriously critical audience. Legendary stage director Peter Stein succeeds in delivering a lucid production acclaimed in equal measure by the press and public: “a perfect coup de théâtre” (Giornale della musica). A “stellar cast” (La Stampa) contributes to the production’s success under the musical direction of Verdi specialist Zubin Mehta, who leads the orchestra in a “gorgeously colourful performance”, while “the entire ensemble is brilliant in its portrayal of the characters” (Die Presse).
Acting
Rachvelishvili's Amneris devours every scene alive.
Direction
Peter Stein makes four hours feel like necessity, not indulgence.
Score
Mehta conducts Verdi like he's arguing with God and winning.
Director
Peter Stein
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This production's set weighed 47 tons and required La Scala's stage to be reinforced. Italians do not play about spectacle.
Aida was commissioned to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal, making it original 19th-century corporate propaganda that accidentally became immortal art.
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