Tag: Opera

Isis and Osiris: The opera!

In three weeks the King Tut exhibit Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs will be leaving Toronto, heading off to the mountains of Denver. The exhibition has been a huge success, and has prompted a new wave of Egyptomania unseen since King Tut’s 1979 visit to the city.

It wouldnt be appropriate for the king to leave without a send-off, and the Art Gallery of Ontario has an interesting one. This Wednesday the gallery will play host to the premiere of Osiris and Isis the Opera. Composed by Colin Mack and directed by Guillermo Silva-Marin, this show will explore the most famous love story in Egyptian mythology. The company producing it is called Ariaworks, a start-up company created specifically to produce this.

Their website states: ‘The artistic vision of this presentation will make ancient Egypt and its mysteries vividly come to life through the dramatic expression of this passionate story of the ancient gods.’

To briefly sum up the Osiris and Isis myth, Isis is the loving wife of Osiris the same Osiris who has a rather nasty brother named Set. Set tries to kill Osiris by nailing him into a coffin (and throwing him into the Nile). Isis saves Osiris, recovering him intact. Set then chops Osiris up into pieces, forcing Isis to hunt them down and put them back together again. At the end of the day their son, Horus, is born. He in turn goes after Set, seeking revenge for all the mean things he did to Osiris.

Osiris isn’t the only Egyptian god to have escaped from the confines of the King Tut exhibitions recently. A giant Anubis was recently spotted being towed around New York’s harbour as a publicity stunt to announce that tickets are now on sale for the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibit at New York’s Discovery Times Square Expo. Tickets are also on sale for the Denver exhibit of the Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs show, and of course King Tut Virtual is always open to visitors.

Osiris and Isis the Opera premieres at the Walker Court at the Art Gallery of Ontario on Wednesday, March 31 at 7pm. Its a free event.

Bootylicious: Verdi’s Egyptian Opera Aida Set For Big-Screen Disney Adaptation Starring Beyonce Knowles

Ancient Egypt has provided the inspiration for a whole host of screen hits over the years, from the good (Cleopatra and Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark) to the bad (The Mummy, installments one through three), to the downright very bad (I Was A Teenage Mummy!). Among the most celebrated fictional tales set in the age of the pyramids is Giuseppe Verdis opera Aida, which was adapted into a hugely successful rock opera by Elton John and Tim Rice in association with Disney in 1998. Rumours are circulating that a long-threatened Disney big-screen adaptation of the story is finally about to go into production, starring pop hotties Beyonce Knowles and Christina Aguilera in lead roles.

Reportedly based on a scenario imagined by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, Aida is the tale of an Ethiopian princess of the same name who is forced into slavery in Egypt, where an Egyptian military leader called Radames falls in love with her. He finds himself torn between his feelings for the African beauty and his loyalty to his pharaoh; matters arent helped by the fact that the pharaohs daughter, Amneris, also has a bit of a thing for Radames, but the feeling isnt mutual.

Verdi was commissioned to write Aida by Ismail Pasha, the then-Khedive of Egypt, in January 1871. It premiered in Cairo on 24 December that same year, and has since toured the world in various forms, becoming one of the 20 most-performed operas in North American history. The 1998 musical version was the work of Elton John and Tim Rice, and ran for more than 1,800 performances on Broadway, winning five Tony awards in the process. New versions continue to spring up all the time, most recently at the Le Petit Thtre du Vieux Carr in New Orleans (see the trailer below).

Disney has owned the rights to Aida since 1990, and the prospect of the Mousehouse adapting it for the big-screen has apparently long been on the cards.

There have been movie adaptations before including an Italian version in 1953, starring Lois Maxwell and Sophia Loren, and a less notable Swedish version in 1987. Disney has owned the rights to the storybook of Aida since 1990, and the prospect of the Mousehouse adapting it for the screen has apparently long been on the cards (an animated version was originally planned but has since been scrapped). Former Destiny’s Child star turned solo pop sensation and sometimes-actress (she most recently appeared in the Golden Globe-winning Dreamgirls) Knowles will reportedly play Aida; former New Mickey Mouse Club child-actress turned pop provocateur Aguilera will appear in the role of Amneris, in her major motion picture debut. The campaign for Zahi Hawass to land the role of Radames starts here.

Where will Aida rank in the list of ancient world box office hits and flops? And can we expect some historical howlers to rank among cinema’s most notorious?

And is ancient Egypt ready for all that, ahem, booty?

Beyonce picture from Wikimedia Commons.