Aida & the Ayatollahs: A Revival at the Paris Opera
This fall, the Paris Opera presented a revival of Aida by staging the 2017 Salzburg Festival production, directed by Iranian visual artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat. This choice surprised many, as Neshat made her opera directing debut with this work, despite her established talents in other artistic fields.
The production prominently featured black-and-white film segments depicting migrants, mostly women in somber attire by the sea. These sequences, while evocative, often felt tentative and secondary to the main opera drama.
Riccardo Muti conducted the performances, maintaining his usual preference against radical stagings. However, Neshat’s direction of the principal singers was notably old-fashioned, focused on a stand-and-sing style.
The 2022 Salzburg revival reportedly included some changes, but the Paris Opera’s version gave Neshat, a vocal advocate for women’s rights, a chance to deepen her interpretation.
Parallels between the opera’s priests—decked with flowing, ayatollah-style beards—and the hardline theocrats of her estranged country made the opera’s violence more pronounced.
This visual and thematic connection intensified the opera’s portrayal of brutality, reflecting Neshat's personal and political perspectives.
Author’s summary: Shirin Neshat’s Aida revival at the Paris Opera combines film and traditional staging to highlight themes of oppression and violence, drawing sharp parallels with hardline theocracy.