Viceroy of Egypt Ishmael decided to commemorate the opening of the Suez Canal by brilliant festivities. The highlight of the celebrations was the premiere of Verdi's grandiose opera Aida. The order for writing the opera caught Verdi during the period when, after the Paris production of Don Carlos, he interrupted his creative activity for a while. After four years of silence, the success of Verdi's new stage work, Aida, surpassed the success of all his previous operas. The audience, gathered on the occasion of the Suez Canal opening, hailed Aida as an unrivaled masterpiece of the Italian opera. Due to his health condition, Verdi could not attend the premiere. His friend, conductor Bottesini, conducted the premiere in Cairo. Generous Viceroy, wishing to demonstrate the world his love of the arts and culture, invited the best performers.

Since then, Aida has been a favorite opera performance and is included in the repertoire of almost every opera company in the entire world.

We have prepared a musical selection for the premiere of Verdi's opera Aida in Cairo digitized from the musical media that stored in the museum Collection repository.

The story of the opera creation is the section Reviews.