Robert Carsen's New AIDA Comes to Cinemas This Month

This October, the Royal Opera House is delighted to announce that its new production of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida, staged by the acclaimed Canadian director Robert Carsen, will be broadcast live from Covent Garden on Wednesday 12 October 2022, reaching over 1,000 cinemas in 34 countries around the world.

The opera was first performed in Cairo in 1871, and now holds a central place in the operatic canon. It has been performed over 500 times in Covent Garden and, with its grand triumphal march 'Glory to Egypt', is almost always described as epic - a monumental work both in terms of its status and its score.

Carsen's new production situates Verdi's large-scale political drama within a contemporary context, dramatising the pull between public duty and private passion, and playing out the story's power struggles against the backdrop of a modern, totalitarian state. Bringing together an astonishing creative team that includes multi-award-winning costume designer Annemarie Woods and Olivier Award-nominated set designer Miriam Buether, it is one of the major highlights, and much-anticipated works, in the Royal Opera House's 2022/23 Season.

In his 20th year as Music Director of The Royal Opera, Antonio Pappano conducts a cast of acclaimed, international stars: soprano Elena Stikhina as Aida, returning to Covent Garden following her performance in the live cinema broadcast of Tosca earlier this year; Italian tenor Francesco Meli as Radames; Polish mezzo-soprano Agnieszka Rehlis as Amneris; French baritone Ludovic Tézier as Amonasro; American bass Soloman Howard as Ramfis; and Korean bass In Sung Sim as the King of Egypt. Encore screenings will run from Sunday 16 October 2022.

Our cinema programme has brought opera and ballet to audiences across the globe since 2008. For the 2022/23 Season, an astonishing 13 productions from The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera will be broadcast to more than 1,300 cinemas from the UK all the way to New Zealand. Each broadcast offers audiences the best seat in the house, and includes exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, interviews and insights into the rehearsal process. The programme forms an integral part of our plan to secure our future, expand audiences and continue to help facilitate the vital recovery of cinema domestically and internationally.

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