'O patria mia': Patriotism, Dream, Death

Author(s): Steven Huebner

Source: Cambridge Opera Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1/2, Primal Scenes: Proceedings of a
Conference Held at the University of California, Berkeley, 30 November-2 December, 2001
(Mar., 2002), pp. 161-175
Published by: Cambridge University Press
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 OperaJournal,14, 1 & 2, 161-175
Cambridge ( 2002 CambridgeUniversity Press
DOI 10.1017/S0954586702000113

'O patriamia': Patriotism,dream, death

STEVEN HUEBNER
Idealized mother figure, great protectress, unsurpassedmagician, devoted wife of
Osiris: the goddess Isis assumed multiple roles in ancient Egyptian mythology.'
Verdi's Aida reflects this polysemy. Concordant with its general attention to
Egyptologicaldetail (though not without inaccuracieseven by the standardsof the
day), Auguste Mariette'searlysynopsis for the opera refers to Isis only once, at the
beginning of Act III when Aida awaits Radames: 'May Isis, protectress of love,
guide him to her who wants to belong only to him'.2
The goddess figuresmore prominentlyin the scenariothat Verdi and CamilleDu
Locle milled out of the synopsis in June 1870.3Ramfis appearsas a 'venerablepriest
of Isis', but Isis receives tribute as guardianof the entire nation - rather than as
goddess of love - in a chorus that frames the grand triumphal scene. Verdi
incorporatedthese new referencesinto his score, with additionsand changes.As the
lovers suffocatein the final scene, Amneris intones 'Isi placatati schiudo il ciel' [May
Isis appeasedopen the heavens for you]. And althoughAida's invocation to Isis as
goddess of love in Act III fell away in the progress from scenario to completed
score, perhaps deemed incongruent with her Ethiopian identity, in its place the
temple of Isis materializes,shroudedin vegetation;priests and priestesses sing; and
Ramfis bids Amneris to pray for the goddess's favour on the eve of her wedding.
Thus the figureof Isis bridgesthe grandioseconclusion of the second act and the
beginning of the third, pivoting between an extroverted chorus in which Verdi
himself acknowledgedechoes of the Marseillaiseand the most delicatemusic of the
entireopera.4Nevertheless, the public role of Isis does not change across the divide.
She continues to function as a symbol of Nation - 'Isis-patria'- and to serve a raison
d'dtat:after all, her acolyte, Ramfis, seeks to cement the bond between Amneris and
Radames,to ensure the perpetuationof a heroic bloodline and, presumably,his own
power and credibility within the political framework. But what about Isis as

1 On Isis in ancient Egyptian belief systems see Jacobus van Dijk, 'Myth and Mythmakingin
Ancient Egypt', and Herman Te Velde, 'Theology, Priests and Worship in Ancient Egypt', in
of theAncientNear East, ed. Jack M. Sasson (New York, 1995), III, 1679-709 and
Civilizations
1731-49.
2 See Hans Busch, Verdi's TheHistoy of an Operain LettersandDocuments(Minneapolis,
'Aida'.
1978), 444. Busch's collection also includes a translationof the answers to various questions
Verdi had asked about Egyptian antiquity,as Document VI ('Information on Egyptian
antiquityby an unknown scholar'). Busch notes some of the opera's historical solecisms,
observing for example that the pharaohs generallyled troops into battle themselves and that
Vulcan is a Roman god unknown to the Egyptians. One of Verdi's questions, answered at
length, concerned the practices of the mysteries of Isis. See Gaetano Cesari and Alessandro
Luzio, eds., I copialettere
di GiuseppeVerdi(Milan, 1913), 637. For a full account of various
borrowings in the scenography of the opera from several nineteenth-centurystudies of
ancient Egypt see GabriellaOlivero,' "Aida" tra Egittologia ed Egittomania',Studiverdiani,
10 (1994/5), 118-26.
3 Busch, Document III, 448-71.
4 Letter of 22 August 1870 to Antonio Ghislanzoni, Busch, 55.

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162 StevenHuebner

protectressof love - the figureof 'Isis-amore' - invoked by the Aida of the synopsis?
Does the goddess's dual role inflect the collective expression of patriain the work?
These questions naturallyengage the articulationof public and private spheres in
Aida. After outlining how this familiar dichotomy is negotiated by Radames, a
characterwhose overarchingnarcissismis fed both by public consecration of his
virilityand privatedelusions, I will consider how it becomes playedout in the figure
of Aida. This interpretativepath will lead to a conclusion that patriotismplays an
ambiguous role in the motivations of both characters,and, consequently, in the
culturalsignificanceof the work as a whole.

One way to approachthese questions would begin from the fact that Radamesand
Aida agree to meet at the very same spot on the Nile bank to which Ramfis
accompanies Amneris at the beginning of Act III, a spot also well known to
Amonasro. Is this mere happenstance of melodrama?As it turns out, the temple
looms large as a semiotic linchpin for the stage traffic.For Amneris implores Isis as
a goddess of love to affirm a bond sanctioned by politics. Yet it is also entirely
naturalfor Radamesand Aida to meet at the temple of the love goddess to express
an affection that runs againstthe political order. For their part, the priests and
priestessescelebrateIsis as a maternalfigure,in keepingwith her historicalcult. She
is describedas 'd'Osiridemadreimmortaleet sposa' [motherand spouse of Osiris],
a phrasewhose meaningis murkyin relationeither to modern knowledge of the Isis
cult or to our sense of what Verdi and his collaboratorsknew about it.5The opera's
creatorsmay have construed Isis as maternalbecause myth recounts that, following
the murder of her husband Osiris, the goddess gathered his bones and magically
brought him back to life - at least long enough for him to inseminate her. This
re-creationof Osiris rhymes with the end of Aida. Entombed, Radames first sings
of eternalnight that looms, but after Aida intervenesin this netherworldthey both
look forwardto eternal light.
Already at the beginning of the opera Isis appears to have a dual function. As
Ramfis and Radamesconverse in the opening scene, Radamesasks 'La sacraIside
consultasti?'[Haveyou consulted holy Isis?], and the contrapuntaltexture confirms
Ramfis's public authority, his law-giving function as priest. The motivation for
Radames's question has little to do with Isis-patria:as we soon learn in 'Celeste
Aida', his purpose is not Egyptian imperial defence, but the coronation of his
beloved Aida, something which later events reveal he has no political authorityto
do. She is no less than a 'forma divina' for whom he intends to build a throne
'vicino al sol'. In this metonymic slip Aida becomes a goddess: to worship her is to

5 The Du-Locle-Verdi scenario outlines an even wider ranger of functions: 'Isis, Virgin and
mother together, Isis Goddess of Nature, Isis propitious to Love, hear our voices, harken to
us you through whom everything is born and renewed, Wife and mother of the resplendent
Osiris, Isis, be favorable to our prayer!'(Busch, 465). In certain localities Isis did receive
special attention as the 'mother' of the god Min, and she was frequentlyrepresented as the
mother of Horus. The librettists seem to have conflated various functions of Isis, departing
from ancient Egyptian religious practices.

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 'O patriamia':Patriotism,dream,death 163

worship love itself, to worship Isis. So go Radames'snarcissisticdream and (put

more positively) his quest for autonomy within the rigid Egyptian order. The
trumpet calls before 'Celeste Aida' seem pasteboard for a true hero operating on
behalf of Isis-patria,so stiff and conventional that it is difficultnot to hear in them
an undertone of irony or insincerity.In the ariaproper, Radamessings with flute in
low register,a voicing that, as FabrizioDella Seta has pointed out, has a particularly
sacramentalquality.6Behind the martialbrass, then, lies the dream of 'Isis-amore'
incarnatedin Aida, not a 'sogno avventuroso'[dreamof adventure],but, as Amneris
cleverlyobserves in the following dialogue, 'un altro sogno ... piu"gentil' [another,
gentler dream].
In the final tomb scene, too, musical detail seems to hint that the goddess's
patriotic and erotic manifestations are collapsed. The final cadence of 'O terra
addio' contains an echo of the tetrachord descending from the tonic powerfully
associated with the priests of Isis in both Act II and the trial scene. Bassoons
produce the tetrachordat the final cadence of each solo rendition, and Amneris
sings it at the a duereprise (compare Exx. la and ib). At the end of the opera the
Isis of the priests- 'Isis-patria'- is appeased, but so too is 'Isis-amore' -
the Isis who makes her way into the tomb, who opens the heavens, and who knows
no racial,social or nationaldistinctions;the Isis who might remark'la patriae dove
si ama' (a line that librettist Antonio Ghislanzoni had drafted for Aida in her
Act III duet with Radames and which met with much approval from Verdi).7
The notion of patria is problematized in Aida not because the tenor loves a
foreign soprano and seeks to make the paradoxwork to his advantage(like Vasco
in Meyerbeer'sL'Africaine),nor because he engages in a brief dallianceonly to draw
away (like LUopoldin Halevy's Lajuive), but ratherbecause he is too absorbed in
fantasyeven to understandthe paradoxposed by the demands of love and patriotic
duty - at least until the end of Act III. Grandoperatypically deals in public acts
generatedby private causes: one famous example is the demagogic preacherJean's
decision in Meyerbeer'sLe Prophiteto storm Miinster because he learns that the
woman he loves is in the city."
For Radames,the gulf between public and private acts is enormous, as great as
the contrastbetween the delicate scoring of 'Celeste Aida' and the deafeningmarch
chorus 'Gloria al'Egitto'. Although uninterested in the ideology of the Egyptian
state, Radames embraces its symbols and its rules as props for his public display
of virility, no less fuel for his narcissism than his love-drunk dream state. When
his treason is revealedin Act III, Radamesrefuses to pursue his dream by follow-
ing Aida and her father to Ethiopia. His attitude, I think, has more to do
with self-absorption and anxiety about loss of control than with shame about
dishonouringthe nation.To his own amazement,he has playedthe game incorrectly
and his dream has become a 'sogno delirio', a nightmare. Aida, now no mere

6 Fabrizio Della Seta, '"O cieli azzurri":Exoticism and Dramatic Discourse in Aida', this
journal,3 (1991), 56.
7 Lettersof 8 and 16 October1870;Busch,77-8.
s See Carl Dahlhaus, Realismin Nineteenth-Century
Music,trans. MaryWhittall (Cambridge,
1985), 83.

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164 Steven Huebner
RAMFIS coi Bassi II
:
f4 > > > >
> > I
>

. , ;N>
Del la vit to - ria a - gliar-bi - tri sa - pre mi ii

fA] >
f f> r>

66 6w>
I-- • 170 1
>-

Ex. la: Aida, Act II, Gran Finale.

AIDA

- ti vo - la - no al rag - gio del - le - ter - no di.

AMNERIS
[A] [A]

I - - si pla - ca - ta ti schiu da il ciel!

RADAMES

-ti vo - la - no al rag - gio del - le - ter - no di.

PPP
mnf
A 42 1

Ex. 1b: Aida, Finale ultimo.

Isis-dream,becomes flesh and blood; the imaginedqueen of 'CelesteAida' emerges

as a real queen.
Here alone, perhaps, Radames engages with reality. To follow Aida is, by
extension, to capitulate to the will of Amonasro, undermining the enormous
investment that the state has made in Radames'svirility during the consecration
scene. His sexual identity has already been shown as vulnerable by Amneris's
implicit challenge in the Act I trio.9 For this reason alone Radames cannot accept
9 On Radames's fragile sexuality-,see PatriciaJuliana Smith, ' "O PatriaMia":Female
Homosociality and the Gendered Nation in Bellini's Normaand Verdi's Aida', in The Workof
Opera:Genre,Nationhood,and SexualDifference, ed. RichardDellamora and Daniel Fischlin
(New York, 1997), 93-114.

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 'O patriamia':Patriotism,dream,death 165

Amneris's offer of clemency in the Act IV duet. In the subsequent trial scene
Radames's utter silence in face of the priests' demands ('Discolpati!') creates a
striking operatic moment. Absence of song produces a powerful expression of
politicalnon-engagement- and assertionof autonomy - for an operatictenor. This
silence also affirms his manhood in new terms, a striking antinomy to the sheer
volume of sound previously deployed to celebrate his virility as a reflection of
Egyptian militaryhegemony.
When realism replaces such narcissism,as it does in the characterof Aida, the
public and private dimensions of grand opfra entwine differently. Aida's keen
understandingof the contradictionsin her situation leads her to anticipate death
repeatedly,from the two prayerfuliterationsof 'Numi, pieta' to the recitativebefore
her aria'O patriamia' in Act III. Intuitions of death, however, do not prevent Aida
from engagingin a paradisaldream sharedwith Radames.Consequently,Amonasro
faces an uphill battle in Act III, one he knows can only be won by cunningly
negotiatingwith that dreamworld to force a compromise that Aida, realistthat she
is, reluctantlyaccepts.

The romanza 'O patriamia', added to the score at a very late stage of composition,
preparesthis situation.For PierluigiPetrobelli,the nostalgiafor Ethiopia that Aida
expresses in this ariais essential to her subsequent duet with Amonasro: 'it is only
because of this longing for her home country that Amonasro can bend Aida to his
will'.1oBut is the attitudeAida exhibits towardspatriain her ariareallyin line with
Amonasro'spolitics?Why does Aida suddenlyleap to thoughts about her homeland
after expressing anxiety about whether Radameswill appear?
Part of an answeremergeswhen we position 'O patriamia' as a companion piece
to 'Celeste Aida'."1Broadly speaking,Radames'saria mainly has an exotic colour,
Aida's mainlya pastoralone. Yet the distinctionbetween the exotic and the pastoral
is never very clear, and I suggest that both charactersuse these blended topoi to
explore realmsof dreamand fantasy.First, 'Celeste Aida'. So taken is Radameswith
the image of restoring Aida to the dream patria- a patria somewhere between
heaven and earth, between pastoralparadiseand the sun - that he brings the idea
up againin the coda of his ternary-formaria(see Ex. 2). This perorationbegins with
trance-like declamation, calling forth an exoticizing modal mixture as well as a
return to the vaguely 'Oriental' oboe colour heard in the aria's contrasting B
section.12 As in that central episode, Radames carriesthe phrase 'Ergertiun trono
vicino al sol' [(I will) build you a throne near the sun] to a high Bb,with an especially
dreamy turn to G major harmony at 'trono'. Like many musical signs associated

o10PierluigiPetrobelli, 'Music in the Theatre (Apropos of Aida, Act III)', in Musicin the Theatre:
Essays on Verdiand OtherComposers, trans. Roger Parker (Princeton, 1994), 113-26, here 119.
1 Gilles de Van briefly links the two numbers in Verdi'sTheater:CreatingDrama Through Music,
trans. Gilda Roberts (Chicago and London, 1998), 235.
12
Julian Budden hears this melody as an unequivocal sign for Ethiopia, TheOperasof Verdi,
3 vols., rev. edn. (Oxford, 1992), III, 203.

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166 Steven Huebner

RADAMES parlanteppp

- dor. I1tuo belcie-lo vor-rei ri - dar - ti, le dol-ci brez - ze del pa-trio

2( 1 2CI

4 ancora piano animando f

suol; un re - gal ser - to sul crin po - sar - ti er- ger-tiun

ancorapiano

7 ppp dim.

tro- no vi- ci-noal sol, un tro - novi- ci-noal sol, un tro - no vi -ci-noal

P pppp ppp leggermente

morendo
10

sol! (sulle ultimabattuteentrain scenaAmneris)

P" P"PP
A
fO

Ex. 2: Aida, Act I, Romanza (coda).

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 'O patriamia': Patriotism,dream, death 167

13 Allegro assai moderato

A iAMNERIS

Qua- le in-so- li - ta gio - ia nel tuo

3 3

allarg. e morendo p

18

sguar do!
-

0:, 6 o

Ex. 2 continued

with exoticism, the sinuous oboe melody and modal mixture of the aria'sB section
and coda derive their exotic flavour more from ambient surroundings- musical,
textual and scenic - than from any inherent qualities.13 Significantlyfor Radames,
exotic signs share a common set of resources with conventional pastoralgestures:
open fifths, ostinato patterns,slow harmonicrhythm,and the like. 'Celeste Aida' is
a fine example of musical cross-pollination between the exotic and pastoral.
Pizzicato open fifths sound in the low strings at the beginning of the coda.
Following the exotic-soundingmodal mixtureand oboe figures,Radamesconcludes
with two conventional pastoralisms,a plagalcadentialextension and horn fifths on
the bassoons and low strings (Ex. 2, mm. 11-13) before Amneris makes her stately
entrance (also shown in Ex. 2).
When Verdi referredto Aida's 'O patriamia' as an 'idyll',he probablymeant this
not only as a respite from the raucous Act II finale, but also in the pastoral sense
of escape to a verdant realm.14The text of the romanza invites two readings,and,
in my view, does not reallypermit a choice between them:
13 For a brief
discussion of this point see Jean-PierreBartoli, 'Propositions pour une
definition de l'exotisme musical et pour une applicationen musique de la notion d'isotopie
semantique',Musurgia,7 (2000), 61-71.
14 Letter to Ghislanzoni, 5 August 1871, in Busch, 196-7. Verdi tells his librettist that the
piece should be a digression 'through memories of her native land', a more restrictedview of
the piece than I am proposing for the final version. In a letter dated 16 October 1870,
Verdi makes clear that Ghislanzoni has characterizedan earlieraria intended for this
position in the act as an idyll (Busch, 78-9).

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168 Steven Huebner

O patriamia, mai piluti rivedr6!

O cieli azzurri,o dolci aure native,
Dove sereno il mio mattin brill6,
O verdi colli, o profumate rive,
O patriamia, mai piuiti rivedr6!

O fresche valli, o questo asil beato,

Che un di promesso dall'amormi fu;
Or che d'amore il sogno e dileguato,
O patriamia, non ti vedr6 mai pili!

[Ohmyhomeland,I willneversee you again!/Ohblueskies,soft nativebreezes/Wherethe

morninglightof mylifeplacidlyshone/Oh greenhills,perfumedshores,/Ohmyhomeland,
I will neversee you again!

Oh cool valleys,tranquilrefuge/Whichoncewaspromisedme bylove/Now thatthe dream

of love has faded/Oh my homeland,I will neversee you again!]
One readingseeks concordanceswith the paradisalprojectionof 'Celeste Aida', the
world that Aida yearns to share with Radames, a world that ignores patriotism
altogether,a world (as we shall see) of blended exotic-pastoralmusical topoi. Her
expression 'fresche valli ... che un di promesso dall'amormi fu' might even refer
back to Radames'spromise in 'Celeste Aida', 'I1tuo bel cielo vorrei ridarti'[I would
return your beautiful sky to you]. But a very different reading of Aida's words
emerges if we attend to the refrain,'mai piuiti rivedr6',more than to the verses: this
recurringphrase capturesAida's despairingmemory of the realworld of Amonasro
and her ancestors that she has once experienced but will never see again.
The musical text is similarlybifocal. From a generic point of view, two romances
having to do with absent lovers orbit around 'O patria mia'. In Meyerbeer's
L'Africaine(1865), the characterInes recalls the song of her lover Vasco in her
romance 'Adieu mon doux rivage', its delicate interplayof woodwind and voice
anticipating Verdi's romanza. Perhaps Aida hears more distinctly Elisabeth's
romance '0 ma chere compagne' from Don Carlos(1867), in which the queen sings
of France, the land of her youth, as a poignant expression of nostalgiabut also of
sublimatedlove for her stepson Carlos.Take away some of the sublimationand 'O
patriamia' hovers near. Both charactersuse the same keys, an F tonic with modal
mixture and substantialinvolvement of A.15
As has often been pointed out, Aida adopts an idiosyncraticstructuralapproach
in 'O patriamia' by beginningwith a recitative-likerenditionof the refrain'O patria
mia, mai piu ti rivedr6'.16This fracturedvocal deliverymagnifiesboth the nostalgia
of this line and the darkrealism that comes with it. The emphasis is produced not
by making the same argumentwith differentwords, as might be expected from a
characterin a spoken play, but by repeatingthe same words with differentmusical
15 The way the two
tonics are associated in each piece, however, is markedlydifferent.
16 The initiation of the first strophe (in a strophic number) by the refrain did have operatic
precedents. For a brief discussion see Steven Huebner, TheOperasof CharlesGounod
(Oxford, 1990), 263-4.

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 'O patriamia': Patriotism,dream, death 169

Andante mosso = 92
AIDA

Andantemosso = 92

3
o legato

legato
AIDA

O3h, pa - tria

) '"o

Ex. 3a: Aida, Act III, Romanza.

textures:first as preparatoryrecitative,then as the final limb of melody, and even

(in the coda of the second stanza) as a combinationof vocal flourishand the earlier
preparatorygestures.17
Nevertheless, the cool, low flute at 'O cieli azzurri',distractsfrom the romanza's
realist vein, evoking memories of the similar colour in 'Celeste Aida' and the
dream world first projected there. In the Nile scene, flutes become especially
associated with Aida's love of Radames due to their deployment for the recurring
'Aida-in-love'theme that accompanies her appearance.
Similarly,the sinuous oboe melody that 'O patriamia' shareswith 'Celeste Aida'
advancesthe claims of the escapist dream,strivingto trump the grim realismof the
omnipresentrefrain.Heard in the majormode at the outset of 'Oh patriamia', the
oboe initiallysounds more pastoralthan exotic (see Ex. 3a). The topic, tonalityand
affect of this passage might even have formed a naturalcontinuation to the plagal
cadence and horn fifths that end 'Celeste Aida'. Indeed, the music that immediately
follows 'Celeste Aida' seems to prefigure the oboe melody of 'O patria mia'
(compare Ex. 2, bb. 15-16 to Ex. 3a). The parallelsuggests that Radames'sariais

17 Verdi requested this ground plan in his letter to Ghislanzoni of 5 August 1871. In the draft
that Verdi cites, Aida refers specificallyto the Ethiopian prisoners and their plight; Busch,
196-7. Verdi and Ghislanzoni eventuallydispensed with the explicit reference to the
prisoners, perhaps because they deemed that the patriaof Aida's youth was sufficientlywell
projected.

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170 Steven Huebner

flutes

pp dim.
harp

6W

Ex. 3b: Aida, Act IV, Finale ultimo.

followed by one course of action in the first act (the appearanceof the virago
Amneris) and by a completelydifferentconsequence in the third (the appearanceof
the feminine lover). The minor-mode inflection of the oboe melody in 'O patria
mia', followed by the flattened second degree of the scale, introduces a more
conventionallyexotic vein. Aida develops the b2 chromaticdetailand modal mixture
throughout her romanza.
Notwithstanding the strong nostalgic flavour, in each strophe she twice repeats
an outer-voice progression of parallel sixths (see Ex. 4a): in the first stanza to
the text 'O verdi colli, o profumate rive', in the second to 'Or che d'amore il
sogno 6 dileguato'.This is the world of the dream 'che un di promesso dall'amor
mi fu', a fantasy fast fading. Having so obviously internalized the vision of
Radames in 'Celeste Aida', she will use the same outer-voice parallelsixths later
in her duet with him at 'La, tra foreste vergini', again on flute (see Ex. 4b), now
seductively decorated with chromaticismfollowing a long oboe solo.
As pastoralas the oboe may be, the opening passageof 'O patriamia' also brings
to mind the turning figure of the sacred dance of the priestesses during the Act I
consecration,a figure that the Egyptian establishmentbrings back to great effect in
the death scene (see Ex. 3b).s8 The flattened second degree of the scale also
strongly recalls the consecration scene. One might hear an Egyptian- as opposed
to Ethiopian- exotic in Aida's return to solo oboe (also with flattened second)
when she sings in her duet with Radames'Fuggiamgli ardoriinospiti di queste lande
ignude' [Let us flee from the unfriendlypassions of these barrenplains]. Such an
interpretationadduces an oppressive, stifling present vis-A-vis bothpastoral dream
and Aida's actual Ethiopian past. As Aida the realist has already intuited, the
Egyptian present offers little but the prospect of death. In its anticipationof the
sinuous flute figurationso prominent in the tomb scene, the oboe patterns of 'O
patriamia' amplifyAida's premonitions. She has just vowed to throw herself into
the Nile if Radameschooses political allianceover their love. The solo oboe in the
thirdact also drawsattentionto the impasse alreadyplainlyevident in 'CelesteAida',
the impossibility of Radames's dream. This manifestation of the unattainable,
implicitlysharedby Aida in 'O patriamia', leads to a death that will function as the
lovers' most powerful escape from a tyrannyof patriotic symbols.

18 Della Seta, ' "O cieli azzurri"', 57-8.

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 'O patriamia': Patriotism,dream, death 171

AIDA

col - - - - - ii... o pro - fu - ma - te

v-
l..ovr ---de...

Ex. 4a: Aida, Act III, Romanza.

Such a bifocal readingof 'O patriamia' invests the opera'slargeroscillationbetween

'Isis-patria'and 'Isis-amore'with morbid implications. Dual allegiance continues
throughout the third act. To be sure, Amonasro powerfully revives his daughter's
realist side, the resonance of 'o patriamia mai piiuti rivedr6'.He attempts to win
her over by offeringa compromise between pastoralparadiseand her true past that
promises to reconcile seeminglyunresolvabletensions. Indeed, his words and music
at 'Rivedraile foreste imbalsamate'almost make us suspect that he has overheard
'O patriamia'. If he needs to press the argumentfurtherin his duet with arguments
about collective history and destiny (most forcefully by evoking Aida's mother), it
is because of Aida's fierce reluctance to crack Radames's shell of honour, the

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172 Steven Huebner

AIDA

Li.... tra fo-re - ste ver - gi- ni, di fio - ri pro- fu - ma - te, in

[flutes a3] ,

Ex. 4b: Aida, Act III, Aida-Radamesduet.

armourofpatria that completes the identity of the narcissistichero. At the end of

the encounter,Amonasro extractsonly a feeble commitment to homeland from his
daughter.The king initiates the passage 'Pensa che un popolo vinto, straziato'but
it is Aida who brings it to a cadence in dissimilarand plaintivevocal style with 'O
patria quanto mi costi!' Her music neutralizesthe Ethiopian king's tone, hardly a
ringingendorsementof his patrioticmettle, even though she promises to be worthy
of her homeland. Aida recognizes that she will have to hurt Radamesin some way,
be it his self-affirmingsense of honour or his aspirations to autonomy. If the
second, the cost of patriawill be high indeed.
In Du Locle's preliminaryprose scenario, the duet for the lovers presents
Radameswith a much starkerchoice between patriaand amorethan does the final
version. The planned scene could not have been more legible and melodramatic:
Radamesdivulges the secret about the Napata gorges with Amonasaro in full view,
while Aida looks on, her armsoutstretchedand eyes raisedin entreaty.Segue a stretta
for all three. In the final version, however, Radamesmakes his revelationin a coda
to the duet cabaletta,in response to a question from Aida that seems almost an
afterthought.One might argue that the alterationrendersAida more manipulative,
remindingus of Verdi's caution to Ghislanzoni that he should not hesitate to make
Aida a bit repulsivebecause her actions are 'justifiedby the duet with her fatherand,
I would say, almost by the presence of her father'.19The pining martyrof 'Numi,
pieth'perhapseven appropriatessome of Amonasro'svocal energyin her duet with
Radames,becoming his mouthpiece. This, certainly,is the characterizationthat lies
behind Sonja Frisell's staging of this scene for the MetropolitanOpera, in which
Amonasro's torso pops up from behind the rocks just before Aida reminds
Radames of the 'foreste vergini'.
But what about that adage 'la patria dove si ama',a line that Verdi praisedafter
the letter in which he spoke of Aida's actions as justifiedby her father?Although
the verse did not survive in the final version of the Aida-Radames duet, does
something of its essence perhaps remain?And what about a stage direction that

19 Letter of 30 September 1870; Busch, 70.

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 'O patriamia':Patriotism,dream,death 173

Verdi pencilled into an early edition of the libretto that Aida should sing the duet
cabalettawith 'l'entusiasmodell amore'?20
The premise of Aida'sinsincerityhas tended to dominate discussions of this duet,
but it might be more interestingto consider the way the duet, like Aida's romanza,
is organized around a binary focus: the real patria of Aida's ancestors and a
dream-likecondition. Interpretationsgrounded in her deceitfulness implicitlyplay
up a stereotype of passivity:Aida at first passively in love with Radamesbecomes
Aida as passive mouthpiece for her father.From one man to another.Yet it seems
possible that Aida's forceful control of the situation in the duet, her vocal and
declamatorypower, could stem not from Amonasro, but from her own love for
Radames.
It becomes plausibleto perceiveAida as sincereif we consider Radames'sdreamy
self-absorptionand the threatposed by Amneris as catalysts.Radames,for his part,
returnsto the vision of 'Celeste Aida' at the beginning of the duet, promising that
militaryglory will lead to paradise.Despite the politicalprestige he has garnered,he
remainsmired in the delusions of self-sufficiencyso evident in 'Celeste Aida'. From
her more realistic orientation, Aida might well be frustrated.In response to her
proposition of escape in the slow section, Radamesclings to 'il ciel de' nostri amori'
[the skies of our love]. She prods until Radamesagrees to flee, a strategythat Aida
might have used persuasivelyeven if her duet with Radames followed immediately
on the heels of 'O patriamia'. She forces Radames to understandthat Amneris's
wrath will make a perpetuation of 'il ciel de' nostri amori' impossible in Egypt.
Indeed, the entire text of the lovers' tryst (up to the end of its cabaletta) might
have appeared without jarring inconsistencies in a hypothetical sequence of
events where the father-daughterduet did not even exist. As it is, many listeners
probablymodulate between identificationwith the oblivious Radames,unawareof
Amonasro'spresence, and with the fully cognizantAida. But there is no reason why
Aida cannot be portrayedas so caughtup in the turbulenceof love for Radamesthat
she forgets her father.21
The archaicform, rhythmsand phrase structureof the cabaletta('Si: fuggiamda
queste mura') seem to reinforce the lovers' commitment to each other. Indeed, the
cabalettais not the only conventional music that they sing in the opera:the coda of
the slow section in the same duet (prominentlyfeaturing'il ciel de' nostri amori')
as well as the finalduet 'O terraaddio'have similarlyvenerablepedigrees.Following
the argument of Gabriele Erasmi, we might productively hear these strategies as
wistfullyreminiscentof the full-bloodedromanticismof Bellini'sNorma(whose plot
has so much in common with Aida), by means of which Aida and Radamescreate
a barrierbetween themselves and the brutalrealityof Egyptian politics - to which

20 Production annotations by Verdi, Document X, in Busch, 547. In the Ricordi production

book, Aida is directed to sing 'Fuggiam gli ardoriinospiti' with 'intense feeling and an
expression of warmest love' (Busch, 599).
21 Ralph Locke has proposed a similarinterpretationfor the motives of Dalila in her great
etDalila,thisjournal,3 (1991), 261-302.
Samson
Act II duetwith Samsonin Saint-Saens's

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174 StevenHuebner
I would pointedlyadd Ethiopianpolitics.22In a more idiosyncraticgesture,aftertwo
solo statements of the cabalettamelody, the parlante figure that Radames leaves
open-ended in the tempod'attacco reappears.With an electrifyingplunge to Akmajor
and rise to a high Bk at 'Vieni meco, t'amo, t'amo', Aida seems as much swept up
by the escapist dream as her lover. Thus, the utopist circularitymanifest in
Radames's unchanged attitude from the beginning of the opera until this point
seems locally mirroredin the musicalplan of the duet. The chord under the high B1
is even the same as that underpinning'ergertiun trono' in 'Celeste Aida', but now
the harmonic progression avoids the pre-dominant dreamlike colour and drives
more passionatelytowardsthe tonic. As the lovers sing in octaves - almost with one
voice - it is difficultto see Aida as a politicaloperative.Absent ironic undertonesor
smarmy orchestral colours, the affirmative character of love music in most
nineteenth-century opera can scarcely communicate divided loyalties. It is a
commonplace of criticism that operatic charactersare not good at thinking. Aida
forgetspatria:the interpretativeleeway lies in the temporal frame of her forgetful-
ness. In the end, more fortuitously than by design (in the rather large temporal
frame that I suggest), Aida extractsthe secret in such a way that Radamesdoes not
knowingly commit treason. The vision of 'Celeste Aida' is of course impossible to
achieve - Radames can never achieve synthesis between his virile public persona
and autonomy- but the lovers come close, only to have the plan puncturedby the
political realityof Amonasro stepping forth.

'Where politics was an ideal or at least an enthusiasm'in some of the earlieroperas

'[in Aida] it is merely power'.23In this perceptive formulationof Gilles de Van, the
characters in Aida are nearly crushed by monumental ostentation. Following
Erasmi,I would like to suggest that no amount of sumptuousnessin a production-
nor of aggressionin the Amonasro figure- could rescue collective patriotismin this
opera. Patriotismis unstable not only in two of the opera's main signs - Isis and
Ethiopia-as-homeland- but also in the representationof the two principals.Neither
of their subject positions ever seems unambiguouslyvested in commitment to the
nation either for the values it represents or the memories it evokes. To cast the
argumentin psychoanalyticterms: standingbefore the priests, Radamesassertshis
creative autonomy (as well as autonomy from the operatic body) in a silence that
provides a bridge to an ecstatic death and attendantfreedom from the patriarchal,
symbolic order.And following the death of the Father,Aida makes her way to the
tomb as well. At the end, the Egyptian music heard off-stage seems to recede into

22 See his ' "Norma'ed 'Aida':Momentiestremidellaconcezioneromantica',

Studiverdiani,
5
(1988-9), 85-108. As to the matter of Aida's sincerityin the duet with Radames, Erasmi
steers something of a middle course by interpretingAida's actions as making the best of a
bad situation: she is an instrument of her father but 'for a moment' she deludes herself into
believing that the whole situation can be happily resolved by having Radames betray his
country.
23 De Van, Verdi'sTheater, 208.

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 'O patriamia':Patriotism,dream,death 175

dream,an ironic reversalof the previous condition that enhances the lovers' eternal
autonomy.
My argumentaboutparia has wider implicationsfor the politicalcontexualization
of Aida. Edward Said has characterizedthe opera as an Orientalist'articlede luxe'.
He equates the Egyptians with successful Risorgimento fighters, a reading that
would privilegethe stirringindigenouspatrioticqualitiesof the chorus 'Su! del Nilo'
in the first act.24But Said is cautious, arguing for a 'vestigial' attachment to the
Risorgimentoand a patrioticposture stronglycoloured by Realpolitik (his main point
actuallycentres on Aida as a culturalartefactin the Western culturaleconomy). In
a riposte that seeks to expand the argumentabout representationin a way that Said
perhaps did not intend, Paul Robinson posits Aida as a work that critiques the
Europeanimperialistenterprisebecause it champions the underdog Ethiopians and
their guerillafighter king as characterswithin the resonance of the Risorgimento.25
Yet, as I have demonstrated,neither the Egyptiannor Ethiopian body politic seems
validatedin the opera.Aida's homeland oscillatesbetween dream and reality,not in
any nineteenth-centurynationalisticsense of collective quest but, rather,on a private
level engaged primarilyby Radames.The tenor, for his part, is at once a political
opportunistand self-absorbeddreamer,(stereotypically)motivatedby the feminine.
If one were to look for a political lesson in the opera, then, it might be to suggest
that, like political expression of any stripe, patriotismor patrioticactivityis often a
matter of personal manipulationand use. Said is right to invoke Realpolitik.The
Risorgimento belonged to the past. Rhetoric surroundingthe formation of nation
states typicallymakes much of the realizationof individualdestiny in the collective
spirit,as arguablyoccurs in a work such as Nabucco.But, once in place and the cause
won, nations (at least in a traditionrooted in Western bourgeois democracy and
liberalism)must also inevitablynegotiate among the aspirationsof individualswho
look beyond solidarityto seek a field of autonomous action, individualswho are
more or less astute as political players.A contextual reading of representationin
Aida would seem most productive against new political parameters:26Verdi's Italy
had changed much since Nabucco,a nation state had been born.

24 Edward Said,
CultureandImperialism (London, 1993), 156.
25
Paul Robinson, 'Is Aida an OrientalistOpera', thisjournal,5 (1993), 133-40.
26 Emanuele
Senici articulatedthis point eloquently at the Primal Scenes conference.

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