page_title: Aida
section_title: Other 19th-century performances
hierarchical_section_title: Aida / Performance history / Other 19th-century performances
caption_attribution_description: English: Giuseppe Verdi conducting the Paris Opera premiere of Aida (sung in French) at the Palais Garnier on 22 March 1880. According to a handwritten notation at the top of the item, it was published on 3 November 1881 in La Musique populaire. This was also published in the 3 Avril [April] 1880 edition of Le Monde Illustré, whose caption makes it clear that this was at the first production at the Paris Opera. See [1]
context_page_description: Aida is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 December 1871, in a performance conducted by Giovanni Bottesini. Today the work holds a central place in the operatic canon, receiving performances every year around the world; at New York's Metropolitan Opera alone, Aida has been sung more than 1,100 times since 1886. Ghislanzoni's scheme follows a scenario often attributed to the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, but Verdi biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz argues that the source is actually Temistocle Solera.
context_section_description: Details of important national and other premieres of Aida follow:
  Argentina: 4 October 1873, at the original Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, located at Rivadavia and Reconquista, then replaced by the headquarters of the Bank of the Argentine Nation.
  United States: 26 November 1873, Academy of Music in New York City, with Ostava Torriani in the title role, Annie Louise Cary as Amneris, Italo Campanini as Radamès, Victor Maurel as Amonasro, and Evasio Scolara as the King
  Germany: 20 April 1874, Berlin State Opera, with Mathilde Mallinger as Aida, Albert Niemann as Radamès, and Franz Betz as Amonasro
  Austria: 29 April 1874, Vienna State Opera, with Amalie Materna as Amneris
  Hungary: 10 April 1875, Hungarian State Opera House, Budapest
  France: 22 April 1876, Théâtre-Lyrique Italien, Salle Ventadour, Paris, with almost the same cast as the Milan premiere, but with Édouard de Reszke making his debut as the King. This performance was conducted by Verdi.
  United Kingdom: 22 June 1876, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with Adelina Patti as Aida, Ernesto Nicolini as Radamès, and Francesco Graziani as Amonasro
  Australia: 6 September 1877, Royal Theatre, Melbourne
  Munich: 1877, Bavarian State Opera, with Josephine Schefsky as Amneris
  Stockholm: 16 February 1880, Royal Swedish Opera in Swedish, with Selma Ek in the title role
  Palais Garnier, Paris: 22 March 1880, sung in French, with Gabrielle Krauss as Aida, Rosine Bloch as Amnéris, Henri Sellier as Radamès, Victor Maurel as Amonasro, Georges-François Menu as the King, and Auguste Boudouresque as Ramphis.
  Metropolitan Opera, New York: 12 November 1886, conducted by Anton Seidl, with Therese Herbert-Förster (the wife of Victor Herbert) in the title role, Carl Zobel as Radamès, Marianne Brandt as Amneris, Adolf Robinson as Amonasro, Emil Fischer as Ramfis, and Georg Sieglitz as the King.
  Rio de Janeiro: 30 June 1886, Theatro Lyrico Fluminense. During rehearsals at the Theatro Lyrico there was an ongoing quarrel between the performers of the Italian touring opera company and the local inept conductor, with the result that substitute conductors were rejected by the audience. Arturo Toscanini, at the time a 19-year-old cellist who was assistant chorus master, was persuaded to take up the baton for the performance. Toscanini conducted the entire opera from memory, with great success. This would be the start of a promising career.
caption: Verdi conducting the 1880 Paris Opera premiere
exif: {}