A grand
opera by
Giuseppe Verdi, commissioned by the
Khedive of
Egypt (not necessarily to
celebrate the
opening of the
Suez Canal), and first performed in
Cairo on 24 December 1871. The
libretto was by
Antonio Ghislanzoni.
Radames is the commander of the Ancient Egyptian army, Aida is the Ethiopian princess who is his lover, and Amneris is the Egyptian lady who also loves him. Amonasro is the Ethiopian king, father of Aida, and opponent of Radames in the war between the two countries. At the end (spoiler hem-hem) the lovers are imprisoned in a hole in the ground to die, and Amneris is cursing the priests who put them there.
The opera features the aria Celeste Aida sung by Radames, and the Grand March with lots of elephants and things.
Not Aïda - there are no umlauts in Italian.
Trick question department. What opera contains sequences sung in Ancient Egyptian? The answer is not Aida but Philip Glass's Akhnaten.