In the 2025-2026 season, the Opéra Bastille will host a new production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida, entrusted to the direction and artistic vision of Shirin Neshat, a famous Iranian artist known for her visually evocative and politically charged works. The production will run from 24 September to 4 November 2025, with text sung in Italian and subtitles in French and English. Shirin Neshat offers a contemporary and intimate reading of Verdi’s masterpiece: the opera - traditionally set in Pharaonic Egypt - is transformed into a drama suspended between the private sphere and colonial war, indicated by the multiple political references that permeate the director’s dramaturgy and aesthetics. Neshat’s vision tends to reduce the grandiose classical stage space in favor of a reflective dimension, where the conflict between love and fidelity takes center stage. On a technical level, the show has a total running time of approximately 3 hours and 5 minutes, with a single interval. The vocal cast - not yet detailed by the publisher - fits into this essential and stylistically refined visual framework, designed to emphasize the psychological component of the characters rather than the monumental apparatus of the staging. The return of Aida in the Parisian season takes on a particular meaning because it confirms the attention of the Opéra national de Paris towards productions that also speak to the present: the reference to colonization, military power and national identity is made explicit by Neshat’s dramaturgical choices, made tangible through a strong and symbolic visual language. For the Parisian audience, this version represents an opportunity to rediscover a classic of melodrama in a modern guise, where Verdi’s writing - with its spectacular choruses, intense rhythms and poignant arias - meets a direction that favors reflection and individual emotional impact without denying the universal dimension of the text. In conclusion, Aida at Bastille is a proposal that marries Verdi's musical tradition with directorial experimentation, offering a theatrical experience that unites the magnificence of grand opera with the visual and thematic rigor of a director who intends to create a dialogue between myth and current events.
