Verdi's Aida: composer as politcal commentator

Many opera lovers who adore the operas of Verdi may be unaware of the extent of his political activism. For example, he was an ardent supporter of the Italian risorgimento, the movement to consolidate the various kingdoms and territories of the Italian peninsula into a single unified nation. Several of his operas contain "dog whistles": scenes he knew would be understood by like-minded Italians as calls to patriotic action, though not so blatant as to incur opposition from censors. The best-known of these is "Va pensiero", sung by a chorus of Hebrew slaves in the opera Nabucco (1842).

Pope Pius IX

In later years, Verdi dabbled in politics to the extent of accepting elected offices, usually for short periods, mostly for the purpose of lending his celebrity to a cause he believed in. He even gained a seat as senator in 1874, though he did not actively participate.

Other aspects of Aida may be interpreted as the composer's personal commentary on current events during the period of its creation and premiere, events which he applauded in one case and which appalled him in another. In both cases events involving Pope Pius IX and the Franco-Prussian War were at the root of Verdi's concerns.

"SU! DEL NILO" AND THE TRIUMPHAL SCENE
Both of these scenes represent a continuation of the super-patriotic content audiences had cheered in previous dramas. The Egyptian king's "Su! del Nilo" is a vintage call to action, whereas the choral cries of "Gloria" in the Triujmphal Scene in Act 2 resemble the aforementioned "dog whistles". But why would they appear in an opera that premiered a full ten years after the Risorgimento ended in 1861? Here's some context.

The Vatican Council of 1870 produced a controversial document from the Pope: a declaration of papal infallibility. The unified nation of Italy did not include a vast territory called the Papal States for which Pope Pius IX was a de facto ruler as well as spiritual leader. Napolean III had stationed troops around Rome to protecty the Pope. When he withdrew his army to wage war with Prussia, the Italian army siezed the opportunity to invade Rome, establishing the city as the Italian capital and bringing about the dissolution of the Papal States.

The patriotic moments in Aida can be viewed through the filter of these contemporaneous developments. Verdi appears to have been saying "Celebrate our achievements, fellow Italians; look how far we have come!"

AMONASTO'S PLEA FOR MERCY
This scene mirrors a crucial scene in Verdi's previous opera Don Carlo (1867). In the Auto-da-fe scene of that work, a group of heretics has been condemned to burn at the stake by the Spanish Inquisition, despite pleading to King Philip II for mercy. When the populace, including the king's own wife Elizabeth join in the call for clemency, six monks respond that the infidels must be punished.

In the latter opera, the condemned men perish as smoke billows out from the burning stake. In Aida, 
Amonasro, acting as spokesman for the captured Ethiopians, begs the Pharaoh to release all prisoners, claiming that his nation no longer is a threat to Egypt. He is joined by Aida, the assembled people of Memphis and even the Egyptian military commander Radames. The king, having already promised Radames any reward he might name, reluctantly grants freedom to all prisoners save Aida and her father.

Both scenes reflect Verdi's antipathy towards the church in general and priests in particular. The roots of his attitude stem from tragic events of his youth, but a situation again involving Pope Pius IX, the declaration of papal infallibility, and the Franco-Prussian conflict reinforced his disdain to the extent of dramatising it in Amonasro's scene.

The end of the Franco-Prussian war was marked by the wholesale slaughter of tens of thousands of protesters in the city of Paris. Ordered by Adolphe Thiers, president of the Third French Republic, estimates of the number of persons shot and killed range from 17,000 to 40,000.

Verdi's reaction to this massacre was as practical as it was deeply felt: he feared something similar could take place in his homeland. Writing to a friend, Verdi gave a grim warning, as well as a grim assessment of the Catholic Church's reaction to the catastrophe:

"Principles pushed to extremes lead only to disorder", he wrote, "France pushed both good and evil to extremes and this is the result. The same thing will happen to us if we don't learn to control ourselves. You have an example under your eyes. Your priests' refusal to compromise of the dogma of infallibility is causing a schism... Your priests certainly are priests, but they aren't Christians. The Papal Court couldn't find a word of pity for those poor martyrs of Paris."

That same year saw the premiere of Aida, his latest work to criticise religious leaders for basic lack of mercy toward fellow human beings.

Today we may marvel at the timeliness of Aida in depicting tensions between Egypt and Ethiopia, tensions that have once again flared up to the brink of war as I documented in a recent post.

But even in 1871 the opera stood as Verdi's cogent and biting commentary on the controversies of his day; his "current events".

One of the functions of Art is to hold up a mirror to society. Few works of art have succeeded as brilliantly as Aida.