Aida: Verdi, Neshat, Liceu. Season Opening

The Gran Teatre del Liceu opens its season with “Aida”, Giuseppe Verdi's monumental opera. A stage proposal by Shirin Neshat reinterprets the classic as a visual ritual. Neshat explores beauty, conflict, and contemporary tensions: identity, exile, oppression. Musical direction is by Antonello Manacorda. A strong cast leads the stage: Anna Netrebko and Anna Pirozzi take on the role of Aida, alongside Yusif Eyvazov and Piotr Beczała as Radamès. Ekaterina Semenchuk and Ksenia Dudnikova are Amneris; Artur Ruciński and Igor Golovatenko, Amonasro. This production, originating at the Salzburg Festival, avoids traditional grandiloquence. It places Verdi's drama in a universe of great symbolic force. Neshat transforms "Aida" into a mirror of the present, where aesthetics combine with a subtle yet poignant political reading. The four-hour performance delves into the clash between the sacred and established power. Aida and Radamès, secret lovers, defy a system that condemns love as dissent. Their story becomes a gesture of emotional and spiritual liberation that transcends the surrounding violence.