They both love the warrior Radames, the chosen chief of the Egyptian
army, but he cares nothing for Amneris, and she vows a deadly vengeance
against the slave who has supplanted her. Radames returns in triumph
from the wars, bringing with him a chain of prisoners, among whom is
Amonasro. The latter soon finds out Aida's influence over Radames, and
half terrifies, half persuades her into promising to extract from her
lover the secret of the route which the Egyptian army will take on the
morrow on their way to a new campaign against the Ethiopians. Aida
beguiles Radames with seductive visions of happiness in her own country,
and induces him to tell her the secret. Amonasro, who is on the watch,
overhears it and escapes in triumph, while Radames, in despair at his
own treachery, gives himself up to justice. Amneris offers him pardon
if he will accept her love, but he refuses life without Aida, and is
condemned to be immured in a vault beneath the temple of Phtha. There he
finds Aida, who has discovered a means of getting in, and has made up
her mind to die with her lover. They expire in each other's arms, while
the solemn chant of the priestesses in the temple above mingles with the
sighs of the heart-broken Amneris.
'Aida' was an immense advance upon Verdi's previous work. The Egyptian
subject, so remote from the ordinary operatic groove, seems to have
tempted him to a fresher and more vivid realism, and the possibilities
of local colour opened a new world to so consummate a master of
orchestration.
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