{"id":15886,"date":"2025-01-06T13:44:24","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T13:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/?p=15886"},"modified":"2025-01-06T14:46:06","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T14:46:06","slug":"metropolitan-opera-opens-first-new-production-aida-nearly-4-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/2025\/01\/06\/metropolitan-opera-opens-first-new-production-aida-nearly-4-decades\/","title":{"rendered":"Metropolitan Opera Opens First New Production Of Aida In Nearly 4 Decades"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15888\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15888\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15888\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/01\/Metropolitan-Opera-aida.jpg\" alt=\"Soprano Angel Blue in Met Opera's production of Verdi\u2019s Aida\" width=\"1200\" height=\"678\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/01\/Metropolitan-Opera-aida.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/01\/Metropolitan-Opera-aida-300x170.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/01\/Metropolitan-Opera-aida-1024x579.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/01\/Metropolitan-Opera-aida-768x434.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15888\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Soprano Angel Blue makes her Met opera role debut in Verdi\u2019s Aida (Photo: The Metropolitan Opera)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Michael Mayer\u2019s production of Aida opened at the Metropolitan Opera this past week. Mayer\u2019s staging is the first new production in nearly 4 decades, following Sonja Frisell\u2019s 1988 production.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Out with the old:<\/strong> Along with a new year came a new production of Giuseppe Verdi\u2019s Aida for the Metropolitan Opera. Staged by director Michael Mayer, the production follows Sonja Frisell\u2019s legendary production from 1988, which has had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.metopera.org\/about\/press-releases\/after-more-than-240-performances-sonja-frisells-staging-of-verdis-aida-has-its-final-met-run-beginning-december-2\/\">more than 240 performances<\/a> at the Met. While the Frisell production was a traditionalist crowd pleaser full of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/12\/04\/arts\/music\/review-met-opera-aida.html\">hieroglyphics and torchlit temples<\/a>, Mayer\u2019s production takes a different approach. Mayer and set designer Christine Jones <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/12\/30\/arts\/music\/aida-met-opera.html\">employed animators<\/a> to include digital projections alongside set pieces. A team of early 20th century archaeologists in Panama hats take the stage alongside the star-crossed lovers Radam\u00e8s and Aida.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Looking back in time:<\/strong> Verdi\u2019s Aida is one of the most-performed operas at the Metropolitan Opera, where it was staged 1176 times between 1886 and 2022. Originally commissioned by Cairo\u2019s Khedivial Opera House where it premiered in 1871, the opera\u2019s story is believed to originate from the French archaeologist Auguste Mariette (1821\u201381).<\/p>\n<p>We recommend checking out our favourite performance of Aida from the Metropolitan Opera: soprano <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Ceo9e06xG38\">Leontyne Price\u2019s farewell in 1985<\/a>. Good luck holding back tears as Price\u2019s ovation goes on and on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Mayer\u2019s production of Aida opened at the Metropolitan Opera this past week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":15888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[488,3,80],"tags":[500,499,238],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/01\/Metropolitan-Opera-aida.jpg","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15886"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15886"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15894,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15886\/revisions\/15894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15886"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=15886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}