Crossing the Mediterranean (Sea) in Opera: the case of Aida

Abstract

Based on interactions between music and cultural studies, my contribution approaches Giuseppe
Verdi’s Aida, which is part of the cultural archive of western modernity. Since the political and
cultural context in which Verdi worked on Aida from 1870 to 1871 included not only Italy but also
imperialist Europe and viceroyal Egypt, I would like to take up the concept of contrapuntal reading developed by Edward Said, who adopted the term from music theory in order to adequately capture the relationship between dominant and subaltern voices in literary texts, including the genre of opera. A contrapuntal reading is aware of both “the metropolitan history that is narrated and of those other histories against which (and together with which) the dominating discourse acts” (Said 1994, 63). Therefore, the creation of Aida is first examined with a view to the historical context of the time; in a second step, the question is whether the almost unheard voices, melodies and stories silenced by hegemonic powers can possibly find expression in music.