The sublime archaeological fable without a happy ending is presented in the brand-new performance by Peter Stein. Flamboyant and hieratic, spectacular and intimate, Aida is one of Verdi’s most beautiful masterpieces and returns to Milan for a 2015 season.

Aida is one of the most celebrated examples of this “Egyptomania” albeit one of the most contradictory.

This opera, intended as a celebration of universal concord and harmony between nations with all the pomp and ceremony appropriate to such solemn occasions, is in fact entirely about conflict: the war between Egypt and Ethiopia is nothing compared to that which opposes the characters to each other.

Their bloody confrontations give way, in turn, to the conflict within each individual.

The great German director, a naturalized Italian, who also has musical training has promised “eine ganz intime Aida”, a totally intimate Aida.

For the quintessential lyric opera he is joined by a star of the podium, the conductor Lorin Maazel, who conducted it in La Scala exactly thirty years ago.