Portal:Opera/Selected picture/67
Giuseppe Verdi conducting Aida at its first Paris Opera performance in 1880. Aida quickly rose to popularity after its première in 1871 in Cairo. Isma'il Pasha, Khedive of Egypt, commissioned Verdi to write an opera for performance to celebrate the opening of the Khedivial Opera House, paying him 150,000 francs, but the premiere was delayed because of the Siege of Paris (1870–71), during the Franco-Prussian War, when the scenery and costumes were stuck in the French capital, and Verdi's Rigoletto was performed instead for the opening ceremony. Aida eventually premièred in Cairo in late 1871. Metastasio's libretto La Nitteti (1756) was a major source of the plot.