Aida – the Fifth Act

Have you ever thought about what happens to Aida and Radamès after the end of Verdi’s opera? We leave them still alive ‘in questa tomba’. The libretto was created by Ralph Köhnen and our aim was to find an answer to the decisive question of how the two ultimately die. It was soon clear that the circumstances would not permit them to be saved. At the last moment, Aida resolves to remain loyal to herself and the great love of her life and to follow her beloved Radamès wherever he goes. This is the essence of my work: even in the most hopeless situations, individuals do still have the choice of remaining loyal to themselves and dying with dignity. My musical material originates completely from Verdi’s Aida, but the work has been assimilated into my own vernacular which has produced a German musical drama saturated with longing for Italianità, thereby lending the music an even more intensely German hue. Stefan Heucke