# After Aida, a play with music about Verdi and Boito



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Have you guys seen it or read the script? I just finished the script. It's interesting.

I liked it, didn't love it. 
It probably works a lot better with the music, and the script does indicate what the music is but the impact must be much better when we see it live. 

Maybe exactly because the musical numbers take some staging time, the play does feel too short. 

In this regard, it is quite remarkable how the author did achieve a lot in such a short play. The main reason I didn't love it, though, is that I kept longing for more. Is this a good reason not to love something? Probably not... probably we love even more what we long for, but anyway. 

What I'm trying to say is that when it starts to take off (the phase in which they're trying to convince Verdi to set Otello to music and doing all this ellaborate game with him), he suddenly agrees with it and then it all moves too fast, and puff, the end. And only the middle part is really thrilling, because the first act is sort of too canned speech, when they try to explain the situation as if they were talking among themselves, in a much less realistic way as opposed to the second act, because they are actually explaining the situation to us, the public - lots of narration, for something that most people interested in this issue and in Verdi's life know already. 

Maybe a prologue to explain the stakes - like a Greek chorus or announcer - it would be a nice touch if this were done by one of the characters of Otello, such as Iago, LOL - would allow act 1 to be more natural and fluid. 

But it is certainly interesting to give us more insight into this collaboration. 

I was very curious about two things: Strepponi's prior children of whom I had never heard (what was made of them in real life?), and the mentions of Teresa Stoltz - historically I believe there is no certainty of her actually having had an affair with Verdi, it was only suspected by tabloids given their close *professional* relationship, but the play takes the affair for granted; is this just poetic license or did the author find more rock solid evidence? If not, I think it's a bit unfair to Verdi's memory... it may do to him what Amadeus did to Salieri (not as bad, definitely not as bad, but still). Most of what I heard about his biography rather indicated that he lived in marital bliss with Strepponi until she died, and that he was a very moral man. So, if the rumored affair remains just rumored and the play makes it appear much more real, I don't know how fair this is... Strepponi did make a big deal of it in her own writings but who knows how much is jealous imagination and how much is reality?

Anyway, an interesting play, I recommend it, it's availabe on Amazon.com for about 15 bucks. I'd love to see it staged, with the arias and all.

I don't know about its performance history beyond what the book describes in the preface, mostly in the UK. I'd love to know when and where it was given in the United States. The fact that you need both operatic singers and skilled actors makes it more difficult to stage.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Oh, I forgot to mention: the play is by Julian Mitchell. I was told it's got really bad reviews in UK magazine Opera and US magazine Opera News, but the person who told me that said the reviewers got it completely wrong (I haven't read the reviews).


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## anagfeleo (Feb 20, 2013)

*After Aida by Julian Mitchell*

I've been looking everywhere for a pdf copy of the script of After Aida by Mitchel. would you happen to know where i can get one? I'm in the Philippines now.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I am completely entranced by the _Marcia funebre_ music of this play/opera.
I really wish someone would consider producing it or make a movie out of it like Dustin Hoffman did recently with another opera theme.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

nina foresti said:


> I am completely entranced by the _Marcia funebre_ music of this play/opera.
> I really wish someone would consider producing it or make a movie out of it like Dustin Hoffman did recently with another opera theme.


Sounds interesting, I'd like to read the play if it's available as an inexpensive eBook. Who would Dustin play in the movie- Verdi? 'Ms Stolz, you're trying to seduce me'!

I'm not sure about the ethics of speculating about the intimate relationships of people long dead, within a fictional context. The dead can't be libelled and they aren't likely to suffer hurt feelings either, but there's still a certain unease about portraying people we admire as doing things which are less than admirable, or which they would have preferred to keep private. In Verdi's case we have plenty of his letters (mostly but not all to do with music and the practical side of putting on operas) so we know more of his personality and inner life than of many other figures whose lives are less well documented, so there's less scope for poetic licence with Verdi, as well as less need for it. Food for thought, anyway.


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## Pip (Aug 16, 2013)

the time period seems to have been disregarded. Between Aida and Otello there was a gap of 16 years.
The relationship with Boito began with the complete revision and restructuring of Simon Boccanegra in 1881. This was their first collaboration. It also helped to convince Verdi that Boito would be the right partner for the projected Otello.
Julian Budden's three volume biography of Verdi can fill in all the gaps(volume 3 would suffice)


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