Aida

Between 1960 and 1981, the music label Deutsche Grammophon recorded the eight greatest operas composed by Verdi at La Scala in Milan, the home of Italian operas. World’s leading singers and conductors were involved in the recording. The result provides you with the best possible way to get familiar with Verdi’s operas...

This is the DVD that almost didn’t happen, thanks to Roberto Alagna’s now infamous walkout on the second night of this production. Trouble appeared to have been brewing with Alagna even before the prima , but opening night went well enough for him. Then, during the second performance, on December 10, Alagna received a negative reaction from certain members of the audience for his performance of “Celeste Aida.” He walked off stage and could not be persuaded to return, leaving Antonello Palombi (still in street clothes) to take over the performance for him. The Italian press and opera blogs had a field day with this incident…

Raymond Tuttle

The tradition of presenting operas in the Arena of Verona was inaugurated by Aida when it was performed there in 1913. The wide-open spaces of this opera-the blue skies and fragrant forests of Ethiopia, the starry nights on the Nile-and its picture of Egypt's ancient civilisation found their ideal setting in the grandeur of this centuries-old Roman amphitheatre and in the open air of Verona's summer nights.