Aida & the Ayatollahs
Revival at the Paris Opera
For its new production of Aida this fall, the Paris Opera brought in a staging from the 2017 Salzburg Festival. This production, created by Iranian visual artist, photographer, and filmmaker Shirin Neshat, surprised many who had seen it before. It marked the soprano Anna Netrebko’s role debut as Aida, with Riccardo Muti conducting.
Shirin Neshat's Direction
Neshat, who had no previous experience directing opera, faced a challenging debut. Film elements played a major role, especially black-and-white footage showing migrants, mostly women dressed somberly near the sea. These scenes sometimes felt tentative and only partly connected to the opera’s main drama.
The staging largely reflected Muti’s dislike of radical interpretations, but Neshat’s traditional stand-and-sing direction of the lead singers weakened this restraint.
Later Revivals and Interpretations
The Salzburg Festival revived the production in 2022 with some reported changes. At the Paris Opera, Neshat, a vocal advocate for women’s rights, expanded her vision. She highlighted parallels between the opera's priests, who wore flowing ayatollah-style beards, and the hardline theocrats of her estranged homeland, intensifying the opera’s violent themes.
"Parallels between the opera’s priests—decked out with flowing, ayatollah-style beards—and the hardline theocrats of her estranged country made the opera’s violence more pronounced."
Author's summary: Shirin Neshat’s fresh but cautious approach to Aida blends film and opera to challenge political and gender themes, deepening the work’s emotional impact.