Verdi masterpiece Aida brings opera back with a bang

After a year of cancelled performances and empty theatres, Opera Australia is raising the curtain on a new season of big productions, opening with Verdi’s Aida on Thursday night in Melbourne.

Opera Australia is pulling out all the stops with a dazzling new production of Aida at the Victorian Arts Centre, opening on Thursday. Picture: Ian Currie

After a chequered year of cancelled performances and empty venues, Opera Australia is raising the curtain on a big new season of productions in a bid to supercharge its post-COVID recovery and lure audiences back to the theatre with some of the repertoire’s most cherished works.

Following blockbuster performances of La Traviata and Ernani, the music of Giuseppe Verdi is set to crescendo into Opera Australia’s Winter Season with a new production of Aida due to open in Melbourne on Thursday night.

Set amid the desert sands of ancient Egypt, Verdi’s epic four-act tragedy has been given a digital makeover, with Opera Australia drawing on a range of new technologies, including 10 LED screen towers as well as alternating floor-to-ceiling projected video designs.

Opera Australia artistic director Lyndon Terracini says the company is determined to make a big statement for its Melbourne return. “It’s our first co-production with La Scala in Milan and you have to have all the bells and whistles if you’re going to mount a production of Aida,” he tells The Australian.

“After 18 months away from Melbourne due to COVID, I wanted to come back not just dipping our toe in the water but with a big piece of grand opera for people to come to and be thrilled by the scale and size of the production and its voices.”