Verdi's AIDA to Play State Theatre in February

Egypt and Ethiopia are at war. Aida was captured and made a personal slave to Amneris, the daughter of Egypt's king. No one knows Aida's father is Ethiopia's king. Teatro Lirico D'Europa presents Giuseppe Verdi's AIDA, the operatic masterpiece about the love and loyalty of an Ethiopian Princess who is brought into slavery and the Egyptian commander who enslaves her.

Show time is Saturday, February 13 at 7:00 PM. Tickets are $40, $35 and $15 for students and can be purchased by visiting the State Theatre Box Office, 453 Northampton Street, Easton, by calling 1-800-999-STATE, 610-252-3132 or online at www.statetheatre.org. Sponsored by the Allentown Art Museum. The performance will be in Italian with English subtitles. AIDA is a full scale opera production with a live orchestra.

AIDA is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in Egypt, it was commissioned by and first performed at Cairo's Khedivial Opera House on December 24, 1871. 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. The opera's story, but not its music, was used as the basis for a 1998 musical of the same name written by Elton John and Tim Rice.

Teatro Lirico D'Europa was created in 1988 by the late Yves Josse, a former ballet divo and brilliant French arts promoter, and Giorgio Lalov, a young Bulgarian opera singer who made his debut at Teatro alla Scala, Milan, at the age of 25 while participating in Scala's famous international training program for young singers. The collaboration between Josse and Lalov was a huge success in a very short time, resulting in tours with over 250 performances a season throughout Europe. Winter 2000 marked the first major American tour for the company. The response to the debut tour from both press and theater management was very positive indeed. Teatro Lirico D'Europa has now completed over 700 performances in the USA at 120 different venues.

To post a comment, you must register and login.