Cambridge Opera Journal, 3,1, 49-62

C
O cieli azzurri':
Exoticism and dramatic discourse in Aida
FABRIZIO DELLA SETA

The use of semiotic methods and concepts in analytical studies of opera has
not yet produced the results that the variety of communicative levels in musical
theatre might lead us to expect.1 If, to repeat a frequently cited formulation
by Pierluigi Petrobelli, 'various systems work together in opera, each according
to its nature and laws, and the result of the combination is much greater than
the sum of the individual forces', 2 it seems likely that the difficulty of applying
this principle may in fact be directly related to the multiplicity of 'systems'
involved. Only theoretical enquiries that go beyond differentiating expressive
levels can hope to arrive at a more satisfactory concept of this 'system of systems',
and thus apply it in a useful way. The problem is of course too vast to be
developed here; however, because the following reading of Aida involves such
theoretical considerations, it may be useful to make explicit some basic difficulties
involving polytextuality in opera.
1. It should be obvious that there are multiple semiotic systems in opera.
In addition to those mentioned by Petrobelli ('dramatic action, verbal organisa-
tion and music'), there is also visual communication, which can be realised
on the levels of gesture and scenography (whether specified by the authors
through stage directions, surviving stage sets and costumes, production notes,
disposizioni sceniche, etc., or derived from subsequent mises-en-scene). It is
more difficult to recognise that these systems actually consist of a series of
sub-systems, each with its own structure. In set design we can distinguish
between the organisation of stage space and the system of topical references
(for example, architecture or furnishings). In the literary text (I restrict my
comments to only one aspect of the libretto, speech assigned to the characters)
we can isolate metrical structure, various stylistic levels (the opposition of 'high'
1
This article was presented at 'Dentro 1'opera: Livelli di lingua e di stile nel melodramma',
a conference held in September 1989 at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice. I am
grateful to Gianfranco Folena, Giovanni Morelli and Maria Teresa Muraro for permission
to publish an expanded version in English.
2
Pierluigi Petrobelli, 'Music in the Theatre (apropos oiAida, Act III)', in James Redmond,
ed., Themes in Drama 3: Drama, Dance and Music (Cambridge, 1980), 129-42, here 129.
Petrobelli refers to Fritz Noske, The Signifier and the Signified: Studies in the Operas
of Mozart and Verdi (The Hague, 1977; rpt. Oxford, 1990), especially to Appendix 1,
'Semiotic Devices in Musical Drama'.

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 50 Fabrizio Delia Seta

and 'low' according to the classical theory of genres), rhetorical figures, the
combination of poetic images, the structure of the discourse. In the musical
text, in addition to phrase and rhythm, melody and harmony, there is the
interplay of vocal registers and instrumental timbres, the use of forms, genres,
recurring motives, vocal styles and so on.
2. Each of these semiotic sub-systems is or can be the bearer of signification.
Since it is illusory to suppose that they necessarily converge in a single significa-
tion, we need not only to distinguish between them, but also to organise them
in a hierarchy, in order to avoid a 'centrifugal' tendency that could frustrate
any attempt at analysis. In terms of the expanded formulation suggested above,
'dramatic action' cannot be considered only as one of several interacting systems;
it is clearly the primary object of theatrical communication, is the content of
verbal, musical and visual expression, and thus comprises a system that subordi-
nates the others. (I hope that my sense of 'dramatic action' will become clear
in what follows. It is neither the plot - the simple chronological sequence of
events - nor their logical reordering on the level of fabula: the fundamental
category in the theatre is interaction, not the causal succession one finds in
narrative. 3 )
Operatic analysis should therefore - at least ideally - privilege the structure
of the action. But because this structure is obviously an abstract system (like
fabula in narrative), individual analyses necessarily take as their point of depar-
ture that co-ordinated set of systems and sub-systems that make up the dramatic
text. In order to organise this network it may be useful to privilege a particular
element, isolating its expressive characteristics, and, by gradually enlarging the
focus to the largest possible number of linguistic levels, attempt the comprehen-
sive interpretation of form and content - dramatic structure - that should be
the goal of analysis. In the ensuing pages I have singled out 'exoticism', under-
stood as a stylistic element that attains significance in opposition to what is
not exotic: the 'exotic' characterisation of a timbre or an interval, of a poetic
image or stage setting, in explicit or implicit contrast to the 'normal' operatic
language of the epoch. In other words, 'exoticism' belongs to the sub-system
'style', a sub-system common to the various linguistic systems of music, libretto
and staging.
Before we proceed to Aida, two earlier examples from Verdi's operas may
illustrate this point. In Nabucco, Verdi introduced a 'theme with a certain odd
exotic colour' 4 to characterise the Assyrians; but this 'signature-tune' does
not have a significative function in contrasting the Assyrians and Israelites.
Put another way, the Assyrians do not become an operative force in the drama:
the Hebrews, who are as one with their spokesman Zaccaria, are in fact opposed

For a somewhat more rigorous attempt to formalise these ideas, see my 'Affetto e azione:
Sulla teoria del melodramma italiano dell'Ottocento', Atti del XIV congresso delta Societa
internazionale di musicologia (Bologna, 27 agosto-1 settembre 1987). Trasmissione e
recezione delle forme di cultura musicale, III: Free Papers (Turin, 1990), 395—400.
Massimo Mila, L'arte di Verdi (Turin, 1980), 17.

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 Exoticism and dramatic discourse in Aida 51

by two individuals - Nabucco and Abigaille.5 In Rigoletto, however, Verdi

introduced two stylistic levels, contrasting the elevated discourse of Monterone
with the lower one of the Duke and the courtiers, making the opposition a
linguistic vehicle for the principal musico-dramatic action, the oscillation of
the protagonist between the one stylistic (and moral) level and the other.6
Although a semiotic approach does not encounter particular difficulties when
analysing these examples, evaluating exotic style in Aida involves what has
always been the opera's critical dilemma: whether, on the one hand, to relate
the exotic element to the 'occasional' nature of the opera, and thus see it as
something distinct from its 'authentic' dramatic nucleus;7 or, on the other,
to try to understand how Verdi transformed the exotic component of Mariette's
scenario into a means of dramatic expression, thus frustrating every attempt
to separate the two levels.8 The following essay attempts to suggest some
of the musico-dramatic mechanisms involved in such conflicting approaches.9

It is often assumed that Aida has a linear structure, based on a traditional love-
triangle, and enriched by a political and patriotic background. In fact, its struc-
ture is more complex, since political events are not limited to the background
but comprise two sides of a triangle, in which Ramfis and Amonasro attempt
to appropriate and profit from the situation caused by the smaller 'private'
triangle occupying the third side. In order to do this, each character attempts

It is true, as Mila asserts, that 'the basic contrast of the action . . . is not so much that
of individual passions as of peoples and religions. Two peoples are in combat, the oppressor
and the defeated, the Assyrians and the Hebrews, and through the choral masses they
speak a language full of dignity' (p. 16). But the examples he cites pertain to the Hebrews,
and a little further on he observes that 'in general the choral writing for the Assyrian
masses is less controlled and appropriate than that for the Hebrew chorus' (p. 17).
See esp. Martin Chusid, 'Rigoletto and Monterone: A Study in Musical Dramaturgy',
in Verdi: Bollettino dell'Istituto di studi verdiani, III.9 (Parma, 1982), 1544-58. On the
variety of stylistic levels in Verdi's operas, and in Rigoletto in particular, see Piero Weiss,
'Verdi and the Fusion of Genres', Journal of the American Musicological Society, 35 (1982),
138-56.
The most representative example of this tendency is the discussion of the opera (reissued
in 1958) in Mila (see n.4), 187-200, where-it seems to m e - m a n y still useful observations
on the function of exoticism contained in the original 1933 book (see 53f. and 77f.) tend
to be weakened. For a similar position, to which I shall return, see Claudio Casini, Verdi
(Milan, 1981), 301-7.
A convincing attempt in this sense, though limited to outlining the problem, is in Palmiro
Pinagli's Romanticismo di Verdi (Florence, 1967), 145-52, which proceeds from a gentle
criticism of Mila: 'before ignoring those episodes as purely decorative and extraneous to
the central inspiration of Aida, one should perhaps seek out what new essentials the
composer might have pursued, or - more simply - what function these episodes might
have assumed in the structural framework of the drama' (p. 146).
Given the wide-spread familiarity with the opera, it seems unnecessary to specify each
reference to the score. I follow the newly revised orchestral score, Ricordi P.R. 153 (1980).
The libretto is cited from Luigi Baldacci, Tutti i libretti di Verdi (Milan, 1975), 449-71.

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 52 Fabrizio Delia Seta

to establish a relationship with two sides of the private triangle. 10 This admit-
tedly abstract scheme unfolds diachronically in a series of 'contests' in which
Radames is always the object: Aida and Amneris, Aida and Amonasro, Amneris
and Ramfis. Even at the two moments in which Radames himself becomes
a contestant (his duets with Aida and Amneris), he remains the object of the
struggle. 11 Thus a scale of power relationships emerges, with Ramfis - who
dominates everyone - at the top, and Radames - whose only means of control
is to accept his own destiny - at the bottom. 12
The feelings and personal goals that move Aida, Radames and Amneris are
the means by which the action proceeds. One of these is particularly important
at the turning point of the drama. Often defined as 'love of country' or 'nostalgia
for Aida's homeland', it provides the means by which Amonasro blackmails
Aida, and by which Aida in turn manipulates Radames. This emotion forms
the active link between the private and public spheres of the action. However,
it is complex, and can be divided into two distinct components. There is, first
of all, true love of country, which can generate only a tangled web of pain
and unresolvable contradictions for Aida; we need only recall her lament in
Act III: ' O patria! o patria. . . quanto mi costi' (O homeland! o homeland
. . . how much you cost me). In this sense Ethiopia corresponds, but is also
opposed, to Egypt. In fact, at the beginning of Act IV, Amneris is prey to
the same contradiction that torments Aida at the end of the first scene of Act
I. The parallel use of antithesis is striking, especially in Aida's
Struggete le squadre
Dei nostri oppressor!
Sventurata! che dissi?. . . e Pamor mio?
[Destroy the squadrons / of our oppressor! / Unfortunate woman! What did I say?
.. . and my beloved?]

10
The characters of Ramfis and Amonasro are also symmetrical by virtue of Ramfis's
vicarious paternal function towards Amneris (and also Radames). Compare the variant,
subsequently discarded, contained in an 'outline' sent by Verdi to Ghislanzoni, in which
Amneris directly asks the king her father to pardon Radames. See Carteggi verdiani, ed.
Alessandro Luzio, IV (Rome, 1947), 19.
1
' In the Act II Finale Radames seems for a moment to enter into conflict with Ramfis;
on this occasion he does not act as an autonomous subject, but rather as a means through
which Aida - and thus indirectly Amonasro - operates.
12
This hierarchy is slightly different from that outlined by Pierluigi Petrobelli, who placed
Aida at the lowest level, 'Un conflitto tra individuo e potere', in Aida di Giuseppe Verdi,
Programme Guide, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, 1981-2 season, 9-15. The difference
probably derives from the fact that Petrobelli gives prominence to Aida's social position,
whereas I emphasise her function in the dramatic process, at which level she undeniably
tends to dominate Radames. Whatever the case, Petrobelli's essay is important in
underscoring the 'political' content of the opera. The dramatic significance of the thematic
opposition in the prelude, in which Aida's love theme does not represent one individual
so much as the value of the individual as opposed to that of power, remains incontestable.
See the suggestion by Dyneley Hussey, Verdi, rev. ed. (London, 1963), 192.

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 Exoticism and dramatic discourse in Aida 53

and Amneris'

Traditori tutti!
A morte! A morte! . . . Oh che mai parlo?
Io l'amo . . . Io l'amo sempre.

[Traitors all! / To death with them! To death with them! . . . But what have I said? /
I love him . . . I love him always.]

Both moments are signalled in the orchestra by the appearance of their respective
love themes. 13
There is, however, a second component of Aida's nostalgia for a distant home-
land, one from which a rather different thematic nucleus gradually emerges:
the vision of an imaginary otherworld, a place where individual human aspi-
rations can be realised without the limitations of collective relationships and
restraints - a heaven under which 'piu libero / Pamor ne fia concesso' (a freer
love would be granted). This future world contrasts sharply with the here and
now of Egypt, forming the decisive opposition of the drama. We therefore
need to examine how this opposition is articulated in the various expressive
systems of the opera.
On the level of visual communication, realised by means of the staging, only
the 'here and now' appears to be represented. It also seems that, in the transition
from scenario to libretto, 14 and from the scenes imagined by Mariette for Cairo

13
This parallelism is also symptomatic of the two rivals' community in defeat, of which
Amneris is faintly conscious in an aside commenting on the distress of Aida, whom she
is none the less preparing to crush: 'Ah, quel pallore .. . quel turbamento / Svelan l'arcan
- febbre d'amor . . . / D'interrogarla - quasi ho sgomento .. . / Divido l'ansie - del suo
terror' (Ah, that pallor, that turmoil reveals the mysterious fever of love; I am almost
afraid to question her; I share the anxiety of her terror).
14
The basic stages in the formation of the libretto are Auguste Mariette's scenario in French,
published facing the Italian version by Giuseppe and Giuseppina Verdi in Jean Humbert,
'A propos de l'egyptomanie dans l'oeuvre de Verdi: Attribution a Auguste Mariette d'un
scenario anonyme de l'opera Aida', Revue de musicologie, 62 (1976), 228-55; and the
synopsis of scenes in French prose by Camille Du Locle and Verdi, currently available
only in English translation in Hans Busch, Verdi's Aida. The History of an Opera in
Letters and Documents (Minneapolis, 1978), 448-71. Other documents concerning the
genesis of the opera are in Gaetano Cesari and Alessandro Luzio, eds., / copialettere di
Giuseppe Verdi (Milan, 1913), 635-82; Franco Abbiati, Giuseppe Verdi, III (Milan, 1959),
336ff.; Saleh Abdoun, ed., 'Genesi dell'Aida, con documentazione inedita', Quaderni
dell'Istituto di studi verdiani, 4 (Parma, 1971); Ursula Gunther, 'Zur Entstehung von
Verdis Aida', Studi musicali, 2 (1973), 15-71. All the documents, with the addition of
many unpublished ones in English only, are collected in the volume by Busch. The most
accessible scholarly synthesis is Julian Budden, The Operas of Verdi. HI: From 'Don
Carlos' to 'Falstaff (London, 1981), 161-259, which also provides excerpts from the
Disposizione scenicaper I'opera 'Aida' (Milan, 1872).

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 54 Fabrizio Delia Seta

to those desired by Verdi for Milan, 15 the authors strove to increase its presence
and create the predominance of a closed, oppressive, nocturnal ambience, with
no suggestion of landscape scenery. The nostalgic otherworld, the opposite
pole to this Egyptian present, is defined negatively, as visual absence (which
enhances its nature as a Utopia or 'non-place'), thus leaving to the more evocative
powers of poetic language and music the task of giving it an ideal presence.
The only exception, in the disposizione scenica, consists of the contrast between
the 'tenebre' (darkness) of the temple, hardly broken by a 'luce misteriosa'
(mysterious light), and the 'cielo splendente e chiarissimo' (resplendent and
very bright sky) of the azure back-drop, suggesting an opposition between
'the dark artificiality of the cult and the serene purity of nature'. 16
In the libretto the tension between these two realms is realised by opposing
groups of images - on the one hand of heat, sultriness, contrasting colours
of oppressive darkness and blinding light, suffocation (even in the 'cupi vortici'
[dark eddies] of the Nile); on the other hand of freshness, morning light, subtle
colours, transparency and virgin nature (as opposed to the artificial landscape
of Egypt). Verdi increasingly stressed this contrast as the opera developed. In
Mariette's original scenario for the beginning of Act III, for example, which
takes place in a 'jardin du palais' (garden of the palace), not at night but with
a view of Libyan mountains 'vivement eclairees par le soleil couchant' (vividly
illuminated by the setting sun), Aida invokes

a temoin de sa Constance et de sa fidelite . . . les arbres, le fleuve sacre qui baigne

ses pieds, ces collines lontaines ou dorment depuis les siecles les ancetres de celui qu'elle
aime

[as witness to her constancy and fidelity the trees, the sacred river that washes her
feet, those distant hills where the ancestors of those she loves have reposed for centuries]

and Amonasro 'rappelle le sol natal, sa mere eploree, les images sacrees
des dieux de ses ancetres' (recalls his native sun, his weeping mother, the sacred

15
For a perceptive comparison of the two versions, see Mercedes Viale Ferrero, 'Scene e
costumi di Aida al Cairo (1871) e a Milano (1872)', in 'Aida' al Cairo, Banca nazionale
del lavoro (Milan, 1982), 139-44. According to the author, 'the modifications added to
the scenario oiAida in Milan were dictated by theatrical and psychological concerns, aimed
at increasing the expressive force and the dramatic coherence of the scenes, so that at
Milan the historical-archaeological apparatus became a means of communication and not
- a s in Cairo-its goal' (p. 140).
16
Viale Ferrero, 143.

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 Exoticism and dramatic discourse in Aida 55

images of the gods of his ancestors). 17 These images recur in Du Locle's later
synopsis, in which the scene is located on the moonlit banks of the Nile, and,
significantly, includes a deleted reference to Radames' ancestors. We have a
brief allusion by Amonasro to 'our beautiful fragrant forest', and Aida invites
Radames to flee with her to 'my beautiful country, far from these desolate
sands! . . . from these shores seared by an implacable sun . . . in our cool forests
at the foot of our verdant mountains crowned by the snow'. 18
On the level of musical invention the decisive element was the creation of
two distinct exotic colours related to the semantic fields outlined above. The
first, in stronger colours and infused with a characteristic orientalism that we
might designate generically as 'levantine', forms the tinta of the religious scenes
(choruses and dances) of the first, third and fourth acts, the 'dance of little
moorish slaves'19 and the victory dances in Act II. The second, with more
tenuous colours and less localised, but no less individual, appears in particular
in the scenes with Aida in Act III, and also provides the prevailing tinta of
'Celeste Aida' and of the celestial visions of the Act IV Finale. 20 This
brief list should suffice to recall the characteristic sonorities of these two
ambiences, and avoid the need for exhaustive description or analysis.21 Each
instance involves a combination of factors - melody, harmony and timbre -
which mix with great freedom, and are best not reduced to rigid associative
schemes.
17
Humbert (seen. 14), 252.
18
See Busch (n. 14), 463, 467 and, here, 468, the latter available in the original in the Carteggi
verdiani (see n.10), IV, 13.
19
'The allusion to the enslavement of the Ethiopian Aida generally passes unnoticed' - Nino
Pirrotta, 'Semiramis e Amneris, un anagramma o quasi', in // melodramma italiano
dell'Ottocento. Studi e ricerche per Massimo Mila (Turin, 1977), 5-12, here 7.
20
The contrast between 'two distinct exotic ambiences', the 'pompous ambience of the
Egyptian court, with its intrigues and its martial and religious ceremonies', which 'is
presented in the form of brilliant and resounding kitsch, in contrast with the nostalgic
evocation of a distant and mysterious region, the Ethiopia of "foreste imbalsamate" and
"azzurri cieli", which is the real exotic, imaginary and invented locus of the opera', has
been noticed by Casini (see n. 7), who also underscores the connection between this place
and 'another place, no less imaginary - the realm beyond the grave towards which Radames
and Aida move together'. This insight, however, is vitiated by Casini's reductive reading,
according to which the exoticism of Aida, whose spectacular and intimate moments
alternate through the opera, results in something completely separate from what he
designates as the 'dramaturgy' (which turns out to be nothing other than the psychological
characterisation of the dramatis personae). From this preconception there follow judgments
on the 'elementary dramatic conception', the 'irremediable break between the
dramaturgical undertaking, of a linearity that recalls eighteenth-century opera seria and
its rigid conflicts, and a musical language that expresses itself with the virtuosity, and
also the morbidity of decadence' - whence the paradox of a 'separation in which the author
is neither dramatist nor - in his usual dimension - musician' (p. 306), as if for an operatic
composer the two were not identical.
21
For a historical survey of the problem, see Jiirgen Maehder, 'Die musikalische Realisierung
altagyptischen Lokalcolorits in Verdis Aida', Programmheft der Bayenschen Staatsoper
(Munich, 1979), 54-66; and, more generally, Hellmuth Christian Wolf, 'Der Orient in
der franzosischen Oper des 19. Jahrhunderts', in Die 'couleur locale' in der Oper des 19.
Jahrhunderts, ed. Heinz Becker, Studien zur Musikgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts, 42
(Regensburg, 1976), 371-85.

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 56 Fabrizio Delia Seta

As an example, let us take the flutes, whose transparent sonority is doubtless

the reason they play a major part in defining the 'otherworld'. 22 They are
freely deployed in the service of this signification in the middle to high register,
often in tremolos and arpeggios, often combined or alternated with divisi high
strings, also with tremolos, trills or repeated notes. But flutes also play an
important role in the religious scenes,23 particularly in the sacred dance of
the consecration scene (which reappears in the Finale), for which Verdi attempted
to have a flute in A flat (or in B flat) made, in order to obtain a fuller and
more solemn sonority in the lower register.24 Indeed, when they have this
function, the flutes tend to be placed in the middle and lower register, often
in unison melodies, and strongly characterised by chromatically altered inter-
vals. 25 This second sphere of reference even includes Aida at times. At her
entrance in Act III, for example, when we hear her love theme for the last
time, clothed in the visceral sound of three flutes in unison, we realise how
this theme, with its sinuous chromaticism, may be linked not to Utopian, uncon-
ditional love, but rather to the concreteness of her love for Radames, with
all its contradictions in the reality of Egypt. 26
Given that the difference between these two levels of exotic colour is not
difficult to pinpoint in the progression of scenes, it may be more interesting
to examine its function on a smaller scale, analysing in greater detail several
passages from Act III, which constitutes the musical as well as dramatic heart
of the opera. As is well known, Verdi added Aida's romanza 'O cieli azzurri'
to the already completed opera. However, I am convinced that this piece was
not born solely from the desire to expand the soprano role for Teresa Stolz
(the Aida in the opera's second performance, in Milan), and even less to add

22
T h e use Verdi makes of these characteristics has been discussed o n several occasions by
Wolfgang Osthoff; see 'Musikalische Ziige der Gilda in Verdis Rigoletto', Verdi: Bollettino
dell'Istituto distudi verdiam, III.8 (Parma, 1973), 950-79, esp. 9 5 6 - 7 2 ; and 'II Sonetto
nel Falstaffdi Verdi', in // melodramma italiano dell'Ottocento (see n. 19), 157-83, esp.
179. It is a pleasure t o recall a statement of Stravinsky, w h o , asked in 1967 t o compose
a short piece t o be used in association with an eye painted by Picasso as a logo for a
n e w colour channel o n English television, said, 'an eye means transparency, and
consequently the s o u n d should be p r o d u c e d by very high instruments, possibly flutes,
c o m p a r e d with which oboes are fat and clarinets oily'. The anecdote, taken from an article
by R o b e r t Craft (1969), is cited b y R o m a n Vlad, Stravinsky, 2nd ed. (Turin, 1973), 349.
23
Camille Bellaigue noted this early on, in Verdi (Pans, 1912), 7 1 : 'The flutes in particular
give certain scenes of Aida, that o n the banks of the Nile, those of the temple, an oriental
and sacred colour'.
24
See the correspondence between Verdi and Ricordi from O c t o b e r 1871 in Busch (n.14),
238-46, w h e r e it seems that w h a t Verdi wanted from such an instrument was n o t loudness
but fullness of s o u n d , t o obtain which it w o u l d have been necessary to increase the n u m b e r
of flutes t o ten o r twelve.
25
T h o m a s M a n n introduces the s o m b r e sound of the flute in Aschenbach's dream in chapter
5 of Death in Venice with just this ritual characteristic, and with orgiastic connotations.
26
G i n o Roncaglia observes that in the last scene of the opera 'Aida's love is n o longer that
of the first scene, and h e r first t h e m e n o longer needs t o exist. It represents earthly love,
in which Ethiopia was vanquished; b u t n o w Aida is finally united with Radames in death;
Amneris n o longer exists; death for love makes a victor of Aida'. 'II tema cardine', in
his Galleria verdiana (Milan, 1959), 4 8 .

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 Exoticism and dramatic discourse in Aida 57

'a quiet and tranquil little piece, which would be comforting at that moment'. 27
Whatever Verdi's stated intentions, this addition also sheds new light on other
scenes of the opera, particularly those that immediately follow.28 The oboe
figure that occurs at the beginning, middle and end of the romanza, certainly
one of the most characteristic elements in an 'exotic' sense, is usually associated
with Aida's nostalgia.29 But one can also see, not by thematic derivation but
by a kind of physiognomic similarity (the winding melodic profile, rhythmic
character or details such as the trill on the first note of a triplet are each in
turn important), that it is also related to a series of figures associated with
the sacred sphere, and indirectly to Amneris (see Ex.1). It is more a recollection
that returns continually to the present reality, and as such contrasts the nasal
timbre of the oboe with the transparent timbre of oscillating flutes.
In the ensuing duet, Amonasro's visions of 'foreste imbalsamate' (balmy for-
ests) are made even more alluring by the clarinet and bassoon timbre, to which
a high pedal for the oboe is added at the beginning;30 Aida's responses on
two occasions answer this with the timbre of high flutes (the first time with
a pedal in the piccolo, the second with a series of repeated notes closed by
a trill). This contrast of timbres succinctly indicates the different degrees of
genuineness with which Amonasro and Aida utter nearly identical words and
melodies.31 Finally there is the duet between Aida and Radames. This time
the oboe melody, even more exotic than its counterpart in Aida's romanza
- to which it is related by colour, rhythmic shape and a sinuous profile (albeit
with different intervals) - is clearly intended to suggest 'gli ardori inospiti /
Di queste lande ignude' (the inhospitable heat / of these barren plains). As
this melody is immediately followed by chords in the flutes alluding to the
'virgin forests' (but with a more insidious element of chromaticism correspond-
ing to Aida's less sincere attitude), and as it recurs twice, we become increasingly
withdrawn from the encroaching reality.
The process we have been discussing also involves Radames, who, beginning
27
Letter of 5 August 1871, from Verdi to Ghislanzoni, in / copialettere (see n. 14), 674.
28
References to Aida's father and brothers, i.e., to the more immediate sentimental and
patriotic motivation of her nostalgia, which appeared in Verdi's own draft in the letter
cited in n. 24 (p. 675), were subsequently deleted. An analogous case of a late addition
that changes the meaning of an already planned opera has been examined by Wolfgang
Osthoff, 'II Sonetto' (see n. 22).
29
Budden (see n. 14), for example, sees in this theme an 'Ethiopian contour' (236), whose
history he traces from 'II tuo bel cielo vorrei ridarti' (203) through 'I sacri nomi di padre,
d'amante' (209f.). Without precluding the possibility of a cumulative significance, it seems
to me that above all in the last instance the melodic revolving within the space of a few
notes is intended rather to suggest an unsuccessful attempt to find a means of escape.
30
Doubtless with the significance of 'open space'; but there is also an analogous pedal that
runs through the sacred dance of Act I.
31
Regarding this passage Guido Paduano notes that 'the repetition and functional opposition
of pitches can convey other oppositions corresponding to the basic conflicts of the action:
the relationship between father and daughter, between an authoritarian subjugation and
a repressed passion, between a future occupation and an antiphrastic certainty of defeat'.
Noifacemmo ambedue un sogno strano: II disagio amoroso sulla scena dell'opera europea
(Palermo, 1982), 17. On the function of timbre, see my 'Verdi' in the Dizionario universale
della musica e dei musicisti, ed. Alberto Basso, Le biografie, VIII (Turin, 1988), 204.

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 58 Fabrizio Delia Seta

Ex. I [ Amneris's thei

Del tuo de - sti - no a r - b i - t r a so - no

p- 3 5 7

Gia i sa - cer-do - ti a - du - nan - si

p.4O6;

Sa-cer-do - - ti: com-pi-steunde - lit - to!

..3 3 ,3 i — 3 — , L- 3
p.234:

Fur dai Nu - - mi, dai Nu - - mi vo-ta - - ti al - la mor- te

Ra - da - mes e de-ci-soiltuo fa - to

Sot - to la - - ra delNume sde - gna - to

p.393 'f vp V

Noi t'in-vo - chia mo

[DANZA SACRA 1 tr 3
p. 77 A. \>\>

p.273

[DANZA SACRA]
-78 A\>\v. i J jj | J J -
f f
Ex. 1

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 Exoticism and dramatic discourse in Aida 59

with his aria 'Celeste Aida', is without doubt the most criticised character of
the opera. The negative judgments apparently derive from the fact that he fails
to exemplify the cliche of the heroic tenor - as if warlike behaviour were synony-
mous with dramatic activity. In fact Verdi considered him a perfect representative
of a line of vacillating tenors, incapable of making decisions.32 In this sense,
Radames is very different from Aida as well as Amneris, both of whom are
enmeshed in contradictions, but who have a full and tragic awareness of that fact,
something Radames lacks until almost the end of the opera. 'Celeste Aida' reveals
to us that he is aware of the aspirations and plights of his beloved; in the phrase
'II tuo bel cielo vorrei ridarti' (I would like to return your fair skies to you) the
measured flute trill, which gradually leaves the middle register to unite with the
divisi violins, is superimposed on a triplet figure (here part of the 6/8 metre),
winding around itself and with a more marked oriental colour, entrusted to
the oboe. 33 This prefigures the contrast of registers that will become thematised
in Act III as a conflict between aspiration and reality. The structural rationale
for this aria, it seems to me, consists precisely in establishing this dualism.
But Radames is also perfectly integrated into the Egyptian political and
religious system, as we learn principally from the consecration scene, that grand
receptacle of exotic trappings from which all trace of Aida seems to have vanished.
Radames remains unaware of the incompatibility of these two universes, of
being simultaneously Aida's lover-redeemer and the king's commander-in-chief.
And from this 'repression' (to borrow a term from psychoanalysis) derives a
notorious inconsistency: he twice imagines himself conquering Aida while des-
troying everything she holds dear (an inconsistency attributed to a character
is not of course necessarily one on the part of the author).
These oscillations precipitate the catastrophe in Act III, when Radames' resis-
tance to joining Aida's world causes his fatal delay.34 The lovers' cabaletta,
'Si, fuggiam da queste mura', another passage that has never convinced the
critics, emerges from an opening gesture of somewhat restrained and uncertain
enthusiasm. Again, after the rising impetus of the beginning, the melody winds
32
See Anselm G e r h a r d , 'L'eroe titubante e il finale aperto. U n dilemma insolubile nel
Guillaume Tell di Rossini', Rivista italiana di musicologia, 19(1984), 113-30, esp. 113f.
33
See n.29. Francis Toye, Giuseppe Verdi. His Life and Works (1931; rpt. London, 1962),
403, praises 'the subtle manner in which the low register of the flutes is used to suggest
the tropical fragrance of Ethiopia'.
34
Verdi's insistence in the letters to Ghislanzoni from 8 to 22 October 1870 on the antithesis
between the positions of Radames and Aida is especially interesting, for example that
between 'Lasciar la patria, i miei Dei, i luoghi ove nacqui, ove acquistai la gloria' (To
leave my homeland, my Gods, the places where I was born, where I attained glory) and
'La patria e dove si ama' (The homeland is where one loves). / copialettere (see n. 14),
653. Shortly after Verdi found that' "II ciel de' nostri amori / come scordar potrem"
e felice assai, assai, assai' ('How could we forget the skies of our love' is very, very, very
apt), whereas he was displeased that the librettist 'non abbia conservato: "L'are de' nostri
Dei", colla risposta d'Aida: " . . . nel tempio stesso / Gli stessi numi avrem"' (did not
retain 'the altars of our gods' with Aida's response, 'in the same temple we shall have
the same deities') (p. 654f.). On the correct dating of these letters, see Philip Gossett,
'Verdi, Ghislanzoni, and Aida: The Uses of Convention', Critical Inquiry, 1 (1974),
291-334, esp. 298.

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 60 Fabrizio Delia Seta

around itself in a circle.35 In order to indicate that agreement has not actually
been reached, there is a tell-tale sign in the libretto: Radames succeeds in imagin-
ing the 'talamo' or nuptial bed that Aida promises him among 'fresche valli
e verdi prati' (fresh valleys and verdant fields) only as 'deserti interminati'
(unending deserts) - an extension of that Egypt from which he is incapable
of freeing himself.36 Only after realising the impossibility of these contradic-
tions, when the only choice open to him is to accept death, does Radames
reconcile the unreconcilable: in that acceptance he can make good both his
loyalty to the Egyptian value-system and his loyalty to Aida, which is in some
sense repaid by rinding her in the subterranean tomb. 37
In this final scene we again encounter the two stylistic and conceptual spheres
whose opposition has become increasingly significant in the action, now
arranged synchronically in a chiastic play of visual, textual and musical messages
of such semantic complexity that any attempt to make it unambiguous is likely
to lead us astray. On the upper stage level, the temple of Vulcan is 'splendente
d'oro e di luce . . . a tinte calde' (resplendent with gold and light, in warm
colours), 38 but the music performed there - the choruses, the off-stage harps,
the reprise of the sacred dance with unison flutes and finally Amneris' 'requiescat'
- sinks inexorably towards darkness. In contrast, in the 'sotteraneo cupo con
tinte fredde, illuminato da una luce grigio-verdastra' (subterranean gloom with
cold colours, illuminated by a grey-greenish light), 39 the poetic and especially
the musical images offer an ineluctable ascent towards the light, in which there
occurs, perhaps, a recollection of Radames' introductory aria (see Ex. 2). 40

35
The perplexity concerning this cabaletta goes back at least as far as the review of Filippo
Filippi in Laperseveranza, a large part of which is reprinted in Verdi intimo. Carteggio
di Giuseppe Verdi con il conte Opprandino Arrivabene (1861-1886), ed. Annibale Alberti
(Verona, 1931), 138-43, esp. 140: 'it is a real cabaletta cast in the old mould, constructed
above a high, spasmodic motive that Verdi has tried to cover with some harmonic turns,
but without succeeding in making it please'. For a partially positive evaluation of this
passage, see Mila(n.4), 198.
36
Verdi wanted to remove all indication of free will in the betrayal of Radames so that it
would appear less 'odious' - thereby increasing the character's dramatic passivity. See
the letter to Du Locle of 15 July 1870, Carteggi verdiani (n.10), IV, 15. I cannot agree
with Budden's statement that the scene confirms 'Verdi's bias towards a world of masculine
values' and 'Aida reveals herself for the mere pawn that she is', while 'the two men
dominate the picture, musically and dramatically'. The Operas of Verdi (see n.14), 244.
37
Ghislanzoni was anxious t o eliminate Radames' ' G o d i a m o un istante di felicita' (Let us
enjoy one m o m e n t of happiness), because it might 'occasion an erotic interpretation, which
certainly would n o t correspond to the intentions of the author'. Letter of 31 O c t o b e r
1870 in Abbiati (see n. 14), 402. This did not prevent Thomas Mann from perceiving that
'The condemned one protested, quite properly, against the sacrifice of the precious life;
but in his fender, despairing, " N o , n o , t r o p p o sei bella" was the intoxication of final
union with her w h o m he had thought never to see again. It needed no effort of imagination
to enable H a n s Castorp to feel with Radames all this intoxication and gratitude.' The
Magic Mountain (Chapter VII: 'Fullness of H a r m o n y ' ) , trans. H . T. Lowe-Porter (1944;
rpt. N e w York, 1953), 645.
38
The second attribute comes from the Disposizione scenica. See Viale Ferrero (n.15), 143.
39
Viale Ferrero, 143.
40
Some of the devices employed in this passage, especially the rapid violin tremolo and
the flute arpeggios,were reused b y Verdi in the 'Lux aeterna' of the Requiem.

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 Exoticism and dramatic discourse in Aida 61

Ex.2

1st Flute

Radames O M M if
un tro - no v i - c i - n o a l sol!_

Harps

Aida
M M
gia veg-g'io il ciel di - schiu-der - si.

Ex.2

It would be unwise to force the interpretation by claiming dominance for one

of these two carefully balanced complexes. I cannot agree with Mila that 'the
sublimation of human emotions, overcoming the misfortunes and troubles of
this world in the bosom of a liberating death, which unites the lovers in a
better world, . . . the motive which, in both La traviata and // trovatore, recurs
as the pitiful delusion of disturbed minds [is] here, however, accepted and positi-
vely affirmed'.41 Nor does it seem appropriate to concentrate exclusively on
spatial symbolism (however important that may be),42 reading the scene merely
as a metaphor for the inevitable triumph of a blind and oppressive power over
individual aspiration.43
There is a danger that, encouraged by superficial analogies with the monks
in Don Carlos, we may overestimate the anticlerical element in the representation
of the priests, whose musical characterisation Verdi conceived in colours that
are not invariably negative. Even if he recommended Ghislanzoni to take inspi-
ration for their victory hymns from the King of Prussia's telegrams,44 for the
consecration scene he imagined 'una danza sacra con una musica lenta e triste'
(a sacred dance with slow, sad music), 'un breve recitativo, energico e solenne
come un salmo della Bibbia' (a brief recitative, energetic and solemn like a
biblical Psalm), and a prayer 'che avesse il carattere patetico e quieto' (that
41
Mila (see n.4), 199, but see also Pinagli (n.8), 151f. The most explicit interpretation of
the Finale and that of Laforza del destino in transcendent terms is by J. Loschelder,
Das Todesproblem in Verdis Opernschaffen (Cologne, 1938), 56f.
42
According to Du Locle, the scenic division in two levels was expressly asked for by Verdi.
See the Carteggi verdiani (n.10), IV, 5.
43
Petrobelli (see n. 12) and Viale Ferrero (see n. 15) emphasise this reading; compare also
Gustavo Marchesi, Giuseppe Verdi (Turin, 1970), 425.
44
L e t t e r of 8 S e p t e m b e r 1870, / copialettere (n. 14), 644.

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 62 Fabrizio Delia Seta

would have a pathetic, quiet character). 45 What is more, the doubts Ramfls
voices against the facile appeals for generosity by Radames and the people in
the triumphal scene are more than justified in the light of what ensues; and
although in the judgment scene we are emotionally on the side of Amneris,
a dispassionate observer could not fail to find Radames' condemnation unavoid-
able. Nor is the characterisation of the Ethiopians positively or negatively
weighted: Amonasro is called a 're fiero e furbo' (proud and cunning king), 46
no less free of prejudice than his enemy. Indeed, the recollection of massacres
carried out by both sides belongs to hostilities whose origins are lost in the
mists of time; it would be futile to try to determine who are the 'oppressors',
who the 'invading barbarians'. 47
However implacable and inhuman, the priests are the custodians of a raison
d'etat whose necessity the ageing Verdi's political realism could not fail to com-
prehend. He presents Egyptians and Ethiopians as colliding historical forces;
individual aspirations are compelled to succumb to the constant renewal of
this collision, whoever the temporary victor may be. Verdi sympathetically
accorded to those individuals the illusion of a different world in which contradic-
tion is abolished; for us, through the monotony of the sacred dance, whose
triplets seem never to cease, and through the invocation of Ptah, which ceases
in the final chord with Amneris' 'pace' and the high G b of the violins, he recalls
the ineluctability of historical process. It is precisely this never-distant conscious-
ness of history that makes the exotic mode in Aida, appearances notwithstanding,
far removed from that decadent exoticism which will soon appear in the fin
de siecle.48
(Translation by Arthur Groos)

45
Letter of 22 August 1870, / copialettere, 642.
46
Letter t o Ghislanzoni, 7 O c t o b e r 1870, / copialettere, 650.
47
This, incidentally, casts doubt on readings oiAida that are too fashionable, those that
stress imperialistic expansionism (to which Budden [see n.14], 258, alludes), as well as
those in an anticolonial vein (which Viale Ferrero [see n.15], 144, cautiously suggests).
Casini (see n. 7), 304, ventures to see in the betrayal of Radames 'a just retaliation for
Egyptian oppression of the vanquished Ethiopian people'.
48
See Pinagli (n. 8), 145.

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