Giuseppe Verdi - Aida (Highlights) / Tabaldi, Simionato, Bergonzi, Corena, MacNeil, Vienna Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan / Decca Audio CD / 467 436-2

UPC 028946743621

Aida (Italian: [aˈiːda]) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 December 1871, in a performance conducted by Giovanni Bottesini. Today the work holds a central place in the operatic canon, receiving performances every year around the world; at New York's Metropolitan Opera alone, Aida has been sung more than 1,100 times since 1886. Ghislanzoni's scheme follows a scenario often attributed to the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, but Verdi biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz argues that the source is actually Temistocle Solera.

Tracklist:

Aida (Libretto: Antonio Ghislanzoni)

Act One
1.  Se quel guerrier io fossi!   5:06
     ...Celeste Aida (Radames)

2.  Su! del Nilo al sacro lido (Chorus)   3:20

3.  Ritorna vincitor! (Aida)   7:00

Act Two

4.  Gloria all’ Egitto, ad Iside   13:08
    (Gran Finale: Chorus, Ramfis, Amonasro, Aida, Amneris, Il re, Radamés)

Act Three

5.  O patria mia (Aida)   5:33

6.  Ciel! mio padre...   8:15
     Rivedrai le foreste imbalsamate
     (Aida, Amonasro)

Act Four

7.  Gia!    7:20

8.  La fatal pietra    6:18

9.  O terra, addio   5:19

    (Aida, Redames, Amneris, Chorus)

• Soprano - Aida: Renata Tebaldi
• Tenor - Radames: Carlo Bergonzi
• Mezzo-soprano - Amneris: Giulietta Simionato
• Baritone - Amonasro: Cornell MacNeil
• Bass - Ramfis: Arnold van Mill, ll Re: Fernando Corena