Gran Teatre del Liceu: Aida
Barcelona, Gran Teatre del Liceu — Sala Principal
About the Event
Liceu opens the season with an exceptional cast led by Anna Netrebko and Anna Pirozzi in the role of Aida, together with Yusif Eyvazov and Piotr Beczała as Radamès. A luxurious opening to bring to life one of Verdi’s most monumental operas, presented in a striking production by the Iranian artist Shirin Neshat, who transforms Aida into “a visual ritual in which beauty and conflict are in constant dialogue”.
This production, originally created for the Salzburg Festival, avoids the usual grandiloquence and places Verdi’s drama in a universe of great symbolic force. Neshat, with her poetic and committed vision, transforms Aida into a story that engages with contemporary tensions: identity, exile, oppression and the fragility of power. The opera thus becomes a mirror of the present, in which aesthetics combine with a subtle yet piercing political reading.
Often interpreted as a love story set in an idealised Egypt, Aida reveals a deeper conflict: the collision between the sacred and established power. Aida, an enslaved Ethiopian princess, and Radamès, an Egyptian hero, love each other in secret and challenge a system that condemns love as dissent. Their story, doomed from the beginning, exposes a rigid structure in which law and religion are confused in order to justify repression.
Neshat’s stage interpretation intensifies this tension with a visual beauty that does not renounce criticism. In the final tomb, Aida and Radamès find one last space of freedom: death becomes redemption, an act of emotional and spiritual liberation that transcends the violence surrounding them.
With the musical direction of Antonello Manacorda, and with Ekaterina Semenchuk and Ksenia Dudnikova as Amneris, as well as Artur Ruciński and Igor Golovatenko in the role of Amonasro, this Aida opens the Liceu season as a great total spectacle: emotion, reflection and a visual force that invites the audience to experience opera as a ritual and contemporary experience.
Aida is a four‐acts opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni during the 19th century. The work depicts the story of Aida, an Ethiopian princess who has been captured and enslaved by Egyptians. To complete the story, an Egyptian commander struggles to choose between his loyalty to the King and his love for her.
The Gran Teatre del Liceu is the most prestigious opera house in Barcelona, and one of the biggest — and most important — in Europe. Founded in 1847 by the Philodramatic Lyceum of Montesion, with the aim of promoting musical education, it has since had numerous incarnations. The original building could not accommodate a large audience, and subsequent episodes — fire in 1861, and anarchist riots in 1893 — necessitated a number of reconstructions. In 1994 the theatre was totally rebuilt and equipped with modern technology after another fire. The improved and enlarged theatre opened again in 1999 with Puccini’s Turandot.
Cast / Production
The King
Riccardo Fassi 25, 28 September, 1, 4 and 7 October
George Andguladze 27 September and 2, 6, 9, 13 and 15 October
Vittorio De Campo 23 and 29 September and 3, 8, 11 and 14 October
Amneris
Ekaterina Semenchuk 25, 28 September, 1, 4 and 7 October
Ksenia Dudnikova 27 September and 2, 6, 9, 13 and 15 October
Fiorenza Cedolins 23 and 29 September and 3, 8, 11 and 14 October
Aida
Anna Netrebko 25, 28 September, 1 and 4 October
Anna Pirozzi 27 September and 2, 6, 9, 13 and 15 October
Olga Maslova 23 and 29 September and 3, 8, 11 and 14 October
Ewa Plonka 7 October
Radamès
Yusif Eyvazov 25, 28 September, 1, 4 and 7 October
Piotr Beczała 2, 6, 9, 13 and 15 October
Arsen Soghomonyan 23, 27 and 29 September and 3, 8, 11 and 14 October
Ramfis
Alexander Köpeczi 25, 28 September, 1, 4 and 7 October
Giorgi Manoshvili 27 September and 2, 6, 9, 13 and 15 October
Simón Orfila 23 and 29 September and 3, 8, 11 and 14 October
Amonasro
Artur Ruciński 25, 28 September, 1, 4 and 7 October
Igor Golovatenko 27 September and 2, 6, 9, 13 and 15 October
Àngel Òdena 23 and 29 September and 3, 8, 11 and 14 October
Messenger
Moisés Marín
Priestess
Carmen Buendía 25 and 28 September and 1, 2, 4, 7, 9, 13 and 15 October
Núria Vilà
23, 27 and 29 September and 3, 6, 8, 11 and 14 October
Address
Gran Teatre del Liceu, La Rambla, 51‐59, Barcelona, Spain — Google Maps
