Aida is one of those operas that must elicit an immediate ‘wow’ effect; a good production is one that delivers precisely that. In theory, the modernistic twist adopted by the Teatro Massimo Bellini risks compromising this requirement, stepping away from traditional scenic maximalism. In practice, it works very well. Rather than concentrating grandeur in the sets themselves, the production redistributes scale across other elements: rich choreography, dense choral presence, and a constant sense of motion that sustains the opera’s monumental dimension throughout.
That approach matters because Aida has long been treated as one of the repertory’s most lavish undertakings, where the theatre’s resources are part of the aesthetic. And it is easy to see why: Verdi sets the story against a war between Egypt and Ethiopia, with public ceremony constantly swallowing private life. At the centre is a captive Ethiopian princess (Aida) in love with the Egyptian hero who is meant to destroy her people, while the Pharaoh’s daughter claims him as her own. Beneath the gold and architecture lies a love story crushed by war, religion, and state power.
The direction by Marco Vinco certainly delivers the necessary ‘wow’ effect at once: performers are suspended on an aerial hoop while a figure in an Anubis headpiece stands like a silent omen in the background, foreshadowing what is to come. Throughout, the production weaves in beautiful circus numbers shaped by the circle, though the very richness of this motion can sometimes steal air from the opera’s most intimate moments; yet Aida is also Verdi at his most merciless, where private feeling is always watched, framed, and finally overwhelmed by the larger rite.
The production reaches its highest intensity in its hieratic moments rather than the triumphal ones, although the famous Triumphal March is certainly majestic, with Egyptian trumpets placed on stage and a gigantic mask descending from above. It is in the female chorus, singing a chilling Egyptian-inflected melody, that the opera’s true tension comes into focus: the drama crystallises into a triangle of love, country, and religion, with the tragedy lying in the fact that the last two are allied against the first.
One of the production’s clearest assets—and a major contributor to the opera’s sheer grandiosity—is its costume and make-up concept. Everyone is rendered through iridescent materials that constantly catch and shift under the light, creating that unmistakable scarab-like sheen associated with Egyptian iconography without reducing it to cheap ‘exotic’ décor. On top of this, the full-face make-up imposes a rigorous colour code: priests in black, Egyptians in blue, Ethiopians in red. In this way, hierarchy, allegiance, and conflict are readable at a glance, even in the most crowded scenes.
Valentina Boi’s Aida is vocally impressive above all for her control: her pianissimi are finely sustained and never lose focus, yet she can expand the sound with ease when required, carrying cleanly over Verdi’s large orchestral writing in a theatre of considerable scale. Aida is a character without agency, stripped of options from the outset, and the performance makes clear that death is not a sudden decision but the single choice she has left, and the only one she embraces willingly.
By contrast, Irene Savignano’s Amneris is the opera’s true dramatic catalyst. She is a woman with agency, power, and multiple paths open to her, and she chooses badly every time. The voice is deliberately sharp-edged, at times openly spiteful, even uncomfortable, and precisely for that reason convincing.
Everything in this production is built for awe, and intimacy is the price. The staging, and at times the singers’ own approach, privileges stillness and restraint: accomplished, even dazzling, but less inwardly affecting than it might be. It is a pity, because Aida can cut closer to the nerve; yet the trade-off may also be closer to Verdi’s logic, where private feeling is crushed along with the protagonists themselves in the final scene.
Teatro Massimo Bellini di Catania
Opera
Directed by Fabrizio Maria Carminati
Cast includes: Valentina Boi, Aleksandrs Antonenko, Irene Savignano, Alberto Gazale, Simón Orfila
Until: 28 January
Running time: 3 hours, 20 minutes (with one interval)
Photo Credit: Giacomo Orlando/Teatro Massimo Bellini
Reviewed by: Nicole Maria Pezza
27 January 2026