Aida, Verdi’s opera, stands out as reminder of the
on-going Nile dilemma
10 January, 2011 | By Keffyalew Gebremedhin
--------------------------------------------------------------------
24 Dec on. A good gesture as it was, the treat became part of the
Christmas celebrations and best wishes for the New Year. Aida, the
four-act opera by Giuseppe Verdi, the famous Italian romantic
composer, became the finale on 2nd January 2011.
In the opening scene, the High Priest Ramfis enters the Pharaoh's
Palace. He tells (bass) Radames, captain of the palace guard, "Yes, it
is rumored that the Ethiop dares once again our power in the
valley of Nilus, Threaten as well as Thebes. The truth from
Messengers I soon shall know.” Radames (tenor) inquires, “Hast
thou consulted the will of Isis?” [Egyptian goddess, mother of
heaven and earth, wife and matron of nature and magic] The High
Priest replies, “She has declared who of Egypt's renowned armies
shall be leader.”2 The High Priest proceeds to the king’s chamber to
inform him of the bad news, without telling Radames whom the
goddess Isis has chosen.
Aida is a story about an imaginary Ethiopian invasion of Egypt,
composed for celebration of the invader’s defeat, the climax of victory
being marked by the capture of the Ethiopian king. It is only after that,
Aida becomes a story of love, betrayals, broken hearts, sorrows,
lament of fate and death, opera’s usual grits. Staging Aidais the
brainchild of none other than Ismail Pasha—the ruler of Egypt with the
title Khedive of Egypt and Sudan from 1863 to 1879. His reign was
terminated by popular uprising and destructive riots forced, which
invited British intervention of British forces in the interest of protecting
their interests in the Suez Canal, without Ismail Pasha. The British had
acquired 44 percent share of the Suez Canal Company, after the
khedive became unable repayment of his debts o British and other
European banks, money mostly spent on his extravagance. The actual
British interest was protection of their trade route to India, a colony
that had been backbone of London’s financial and commercial empire.
For purposes of the opera, music historians have conjecturally put
occurrences of Aida’s events around 2000 BC during Egypt’s Middle
Kingdom, when Thebes was the seat of the kings. This time frame and
Aida’s theme are only a presented as red herring to disguise the true
intentions of Khedive Ismail Pasha. We see five years later history
having recorded the actual truth, in terms of actual events, dates and
places, including through information gathered from letters and diaries
of American and European mercenaries hired by him. In the end, not
only Egypt’s ambitions, especially its intentions and efforts of
occupying the entire Horn of Africa, were severely punished and
became unrealisable. Also the fictional story Aida stands out as
reminder of the humiliation of expansionist Egypt and its flighty
khedive.
Therefore, this article is presented to put the reality into its proper
context. This action is necessary because the underlying motive of
Aida is still alive and kicking in Cairo and is persistent. It would be
presented in two parts. Aida, as an expression of Egyptian ambitions
is the first part, contrasted with the actual history. The second part
would deal with the actual Nile issues and the problems confronted.
Further, I must add that thesecond part would take a whiff from my
on-going work on the Nile dilemmas and the difficulties thereon in
Ethio-Egyptian relations—past, present and in the future. I started the
study in the middle of 2010,awakenedon one hand by Egypt’s
continuing lust and arrogance and, on the other, by a combination of
factors, both internal and external to Ethiopia, which call for reflection.
Even before the research work is completed, Aidahasimpelled me to
compare its theme with the actual events. Myintention is to remind my
readers “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life." All that is
needed is motive, as Oscar Wilde has ably shown in his essay The
Decay of Lying.
Standing where the high Priest had left him and unfazed by the
imminence of war, Radames blasts his prayers/wishes,expressing his
hope that Isis would choose him as commander of the Egyptian
forces. While a good warrior and a man in love at that point, already
two women so much wanting him, his fortunes, even by his volition,
have been linked to the pursuit of fame and glory only to impress
Aida. She is an Ethiopian slave in the Pharaoh’s Palace, captured as
war prisoner, along others, early on. Aida’s secret is that she was an
Ethiopian princess, about whom not a soul knows in the palace, save
that she is a slave—I presume a beautiful one at that! As it happens,
she is secretly in love with Radames.
The other woman is Amneris, the king’s daughter, who, while deeply
in love with Radames enormously, suffers with jealousy after she
discovered shortly before the arrival of the invading army that the man
for whom she had a special place in her heart was interested in Aida,
her slave. Before her father’s entry to the hall, Amneris (mezzo-
soprano) makes Radames understand her awareness of the lusts of his
heart saying, “In thy visage I trace a joy unwonted! What martial
ardor is beaming in thy noble glances! Ah me! How worthy were
of all envy; the woman whose dearly wish'd for presence; could
have power to kindle in thee such rapture! In your looks I trace a
joy unwonted."
Consequently, Khedive Ismail Pasha commissioned composer
Giuseppe Verdi in January 1871 long before his planned invasion of
Ethiopia in 1874-1876. However, the preparations had begun much
earlier. For instance, the great Ethiopianist, Prof Richard Pankhurst
writes that already at the beginning of his reign in 1872, Emperor
Yohannes IV had experienced strong pressure form the Egyptians,
due to Egypt’s continued surge downwards since the late 1860s,
mostly in the direction of eastern Sudan and the adjacent areas on the
Ethiopian borders. He notes, “On 20 May 1868, the Sultan of the
Ottoman Empire had transferred Massawa to the Egyptians, who
soon afterwards occupied the nearby port of Zulla, and instituted a
rigid blockade to prevent the import of arms by Yohannes” (The
Pankhurst History Library: A Page in Ethiopia's Late 19th
Century History The Reign of Emperor Yohannes IV: Part I,
www.linkethiopia.org/). There is no doubt that Aida is a true
expression of Egypt’s longstanding ambitions: the determination to
take control of the Nile waters and treat the Horn of Africa as its
backyard.
In most of its advances into Ethiopian territory, Egypt was aided by
power hungry warlords in the likes of Welde Mikel Selomon of
Hazega that needed modern weapons from the invader. Such
behaviour had been a curse that befell the nation at different times,
including by the actions of its saviours, unifiers and builders. The
lessons left by those experiences have relevance to today’s
generation, especially those in power—whether they would be
deluded by the magnitude of the day’s problems and abandon national
principles, choosing the temporary comforts of political expediency to
avoid confronting challenges. Before he assumed the throne,
Yohannes had done it to Tewodros, guiding the British to Maqdala.
Napier awarded him military aid worth approximately £500,000,
artillery, muskets, rifles, and munitions that in addition to his existing
formidable military capability had ensured his rise to the throne
(Harold Marcus, A History of Ethiopia, 1994).
Fortunately, the British did not occupy the country. After ensuring the
Emperor Tewodros’s demise and the destruction of Maqdala, the
Napier expeditionary force left the country, nearly as they got it. Of
course, Napier took with him the British prisoners Tewodros had held
and looted valuables, especially historical artefacts, including
numerous works of art and old manuscripts from churches and private
individuals some of which are still in display in the British Museum.
Menilik had done the same thing to Yohannes, especially when the
latter was trying to prevent foreign invasion. Historians refer to the 2
July 1888 conversation between Menilik and Count Antonelli, that
took place without the knowledge of Yohannes. Menilik is quoted as
saying, “he was breaking with the emperor Yohannes, that he
sought Rome's cooperation, and that he wanted ten thousand
remingtons with adequate ammunition. Of this, Prof. Marcus notes:
Similarly, taking advantage of the chaos of the infamous Zemene
Mesafint, the Era of Princes, Egypt took advantage of Ethiopia,
including using foreign mercenaries and domestic sell-outs. Prof
Harold Marcus writes, “Egyptians had occupied Gallabat
Matamma and all the ports of south Mitswa.” He further notes:
By early September 1875, Khedive Ismail had “ordered four
expeditions to take control over the Horn of Africa. Two were
successful, and Cairo won the important inland trading center of Harer
and consolidated its hold over the Somali coast.” The Swiss
mercenary Munzinger, who had been promoted to pasha and made
governor-general of eastern Sudan and the Red Sea Coast, was
“ordered to cross the hinterland of Tadjoura Djibouti and contact
Shewa.
Thanks to a trap set by the Afar of Awsa, who fought to retain control
over key trading routes, the force commanded by Munzinger on 14
November 1875 disastrously failed and he lost his life. The Egyptians
were perhaps influenced by the ease with which the British had
overthrown Tewodros in 1868, observes Prof R. Pankhurst, to attack
Yohannes and to occupy Adwa. They sent “a well-equipped Egyptian
force led by a Danish commander, Colonel Arendrup, and a number
of American officers, who had formerly served in the Confederate
forces in the American Civil War” and advanced from Massawa
inland. It was at the point of their crossing the Marab River they were
“badly mauled” at Gundet on 16 November 1875. It is written that
Egypt had sent a third force that also lost. Notwithstanding that, in
Aida Ethiopia is presented as invader.
Although Khedive Ismail’s transaction with Giuseppe Verdi was
indeed real, as per the agreement signed in June 1870, his actions far
advanced for his time—trying to impress the Europeans as an equal—
Cairo to this day denies that Aida has anything to do with any war
plans and preparations for the conquest of the Horn of Africa by the
mid-1870s. They also deny that it is linked to the opening of the Suez
Canal. Further, they disagree with any speculation by foreign music
historians, such as that Aida was composed either for the inauguration
of the Khedive Opera House, which the pasha ordered erected in
1869, or that of the Cairo Opera House in 1870. Their implausible
explanations seem to prefer to push the whole thing under the rug,
thereby leaving it bereft of explanations. Certainly, war plans are
supposed to be secret, as national security information. The irony is
that they do not admit it today either for a reason unclear to me at this
stage, although I could speculate.
Giuseppe Verdi was widely recognised for several of his superb
operatic works. Last autumn, the San Francisco Opera paid a
glowing tribute to Aida as “the grandest of grand operas, a brilliant
balance of spectacular pageantry and emotional intimacy” (www.
sfopera.com). Twice before Verdi had refused Khedive Ismail’s
enticement to compose the opera for him, “considering himself not
suited to composing operas on demand” (www.arena.it/en-US). The
khedive only succeeded in his third attempt, for which he paid Verdi
150,000 francs, a huge sumby then. After its completion, Aida was
performed in Cairo on 24 December 1871 and was rapturously
received.
Nevertheless, visibly missing during Aida’s premiere in Cairo was
Verdi himself. He protested that only politicians and dignitaries were
invited, with no attendance of members of the general public. For that
reason, Verdi arranged Aida’s real premiere at La Scala, Italy, on 8
February 1872, according to opera history, heavily involving himself in
that venture. Since 1873, Aida has been shown around the world
continuously. The opera returned to Egypt for the second time in
1994, after 123 years absence. This gap may be because of the
country’s circumstances, changed priorities since the 1940s, as Egypt
had been engrossed in the question of peace and security outside its
borders the pursuit of Arab leadership on its mind. At the same time,
it could also be due to awareness of the need for a balancing act in the
face of Middle East’s varied periods of religious fervour. Since Aida
was shown in the Giza pyramids about 16 years ago, it has almost
now become an annual event, a sign of Egypt’s cultural tourism
development and growing liberalism.
As Radames and Amneris were standing, the king enters the Palace
Hall, accompanied by the High Priest, ministers and the clergy. In the
presence of his dignitaries, the king asks (bass) to be informed about
the Ethiopian invasion of Egypt. A messenger waiting at the door is
brought into the hall, where he announces (tenor), “The Ethiopians
led by King Amonasro were marching on Thebes.” Immediately, the
King declares war and, on the nomination of the goddess Isis,
proclaims Radames commander of the Egyptian army.
Although Aida was torn between her love for her father the king, her
country and Radames, she utters the following words in dejection
(soprano):
The war’s course ends with Egypt prevailing and Egypt taking captive
the Ethiopian monarch and his men. The king offers his daughter hand
in marriage to Radames. The Ethiopian king joins his daughter Aida in
captivity. As is always the case with opera, the story then becomes
that of human emotions: rage, sorrow, fate, nostalgia, love, betrayal,
heroism and vendetta and eventually death. Instead of Amneris,
Radmes shows determination to stick with his heart’s choice of Aida,
despite the honour Egypt had given him in leading its forces against
Ethiopia and the status of a privileged citizen for the victory he had
brought.
Like history, it seems, fate also has its will. Even without the union
between Radames and Amneris is realized,Radames falls from grace
and gets thrown to jail charged with treason. The justices gathered in
the temple sentence him to be buried alive. This time, Aida had
secretly entered the prison where she knew they would throw him
choosing to die with him. Treason charges were brought against him
because the High Priest had seen him talking to Egypt’s enemies—the
prisoner Ethiopian king. In truth, Radames was actually plotting their
escape, since he was in love with his daughter. If it were up to him, he
had chosen to escape with the princess, which in this troubled time is
a positive element that underlines a continuing link between the two
countries. The Aida story ends with Aida and Radames accepting
their fate, in the lower floor of the vault of the temple of Vulcan.
Amneris weeps and prays to the goddess Isis from the upper floor for
the loss of her love. Aida dies in Radames' arms.
In real life, the outcome of Khedive Ismail’s extravagant adventure
had not brought him what he had hoped for. History had dealt him a
different hand at Gundet and Gura. Whatever Egypt’s driving force
was, fortunately for Ethiopia, the outcome of the war that followed
Aida’s performance a short five years later rather became totally
different from what is ascribed in Aida, or the Khedive had badly
wanted or his commanders, some of them European mercenaries from
different countries, including fifty Americans (The Journal of Military
History - Volume 70, Number 1, January 2006), had ever
anticipated. In the words of Haggai Erlich, the Battles of Gundet and
Gura became “a turning point in the fortunes of Egypt in the Horn of
Africa” (The Cross and the River: Ethiopia, Egypt, and the Nile,
2002).
The whole ambition of the khedive and Ethiopia’s repulsion of it is
synoptically captured by Prof Donald Crummy in his book Land and
Society in the Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia, 2000, where he
relates:
In his analysis of the Battles of Gundet and Gura, the Ethiopian
historian Bahru Zewde insightfully observes that those two victories
were even more remarkable than their famous successor, the Battle of
Adwa, following which Menilik was to lead a united Ethiopia against
the Italians, while Yohannes faced the Egyptians as the head of a
divided house. He further adds:
Ever since, at least, there has not been any direct military engagement
between Ethiopia and Egypt, chastened by the lessons of history.
Nevertheless, the question of equal access by all co-riparians for
utilisation of the Nile River was and still istop most national security
concerns and priorities for both countries. Nevertheless, there is
growing noise about the texture of each side’s concerns and needs; I
sense that path is full of unexploded mines, not at all capable of
serving as bridge over the complex Nile impasse. Ethiopia and Egypt
are capable of working common solution, if only Egypt begins to
work from a more comprehensive model, instead of its fixation with
the Ismailian model that did not even work, despite the huge and well
armed forces and the pomp of opera. Neither resort to conflictsand
destabilisation nor cajoling of water source countries with economic
and technical cooperation could win the day.
Aida is instructive at so many levels. Most importantly, reality dictates
that Egypt see wisdom in the words of the respected Egyptian
journalist, freedom of thought and equality activist and writer Iqbal
Baraka, who has taken it upon herself to exorcise the false belief in
Egyptian thinking that the Nile is Egypt’s alone. In It is not our Nile,
Ms Baraka laments:
~ Quoted in Sudan Tribune,The Egyptian role in Sudan’s development
and underdevelopment 1899-2010, 27 June 2010.
(to be continued)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The writer was a former civil servant and diplomat in the Ethiopian
government. Later he served as International Staff with the
United Nations and is currently in retirement, devoting his time for
research and writing. He can be reached at kef730@gmail.com.
www.opera.stanford.edu/Verdi/Aida/libnotes.htm
on-going Nile dilemma
10 January, 2011 | By Keffyalew Gebremedhin
--------------------------------------------------------------------
- At a time of terrible slump in
the global economy, when
millions of workers and
families across countries have
been visited by its adverse
consequences, the
watchmaker Rolex fêted the
international public with six
24 Dec on. A good gesture as it was, the treat became part of the
Christmas celebrations and best wishes for the New Year. Aida, the
four-act opera by Giuseppe Verdi, the famous Italian romantic
composer, became the finale on 2nd January 2011.
In the opening scene, the High Priest Ramfis enters the Pharaoh's
Palace. He tells (bass) Radames, captain of the palace guard, "Yes, it
is rumored that the Ethiop dares once again our power in the
valley of Nilus, Threaten as well as Thebes. The truth from
Messengers I soon shall know.” Radames (tenor) inquires, “Hast
thou consulted the will of Isis?” [Egyptian goddess, mother of
heaven and earth, wife and matron of nature and magic] The High
Priest replies, “She has declared who of Egypt's renowned armies
shall be leader.”2 The High Priest proceeds to the king’s chamber to
inform him of the bad news, without telling Radames whom the
goddess Isis has chosen.
Aida is a story about an imaginary Ethiopian invasion of Egypt,
composed for celebration of the invader’s defeat, the climax of victory
being marked by the capture of the Ethiopian king. It is only after that,
Aida becomes a story of love, betrayals, broken hearts, sorrows,
lament of fate and death, opera’s usual grits. Staging Aidais the
brainchild of none other than Ismail Pasha—the ruler of Egypt with the
title Khedive of Egypt and Sudan from 1863 to 1879. His reign was
terminated by popular uprising and destructive riots forced, which
invited British intervention of British forces in the interest of protecting
their interests in the Suez Canal, without Ismail Pasha. The British had
acquired 44 percent share of the Suez Canal Company, after the
khedive became unable repayment of his debts o British and other
European banks, money mostly spent on his extravagance. The actual
British interest was protection of their trade route to India, a colony
that had been backbone of London’s financial and commercial empire.
For purposes of the opera, music historians have conjecturally put
occurrences of Aida’s events around 2000 BC during Egypt’s Middle
Kingdom, when Thebes was the seat of the kings. This time frame and
Aida’s theme are only a presented as red herring to disguise the true
intentions of Khedive Ismail Pasha. We see five years later history
having recorded the actual truth, in terms of actual events, dates and
places, including through information gathered from letters and diaries
of American and European mercenaries hired by him. In the end, not
only Egypt’s ambitions, especially its intentions and efforts of
occupying the entire Horn of Africa, were severely punished and
became unrealisable. Also the fictional story Aida stands out as
reminder of the humiliation of expansionist Egypt and its flighty
khedive.
Therefore, this article is presented to put the reality into its proper
context. This action is necessary because the underlying motive of
Aida is still alive and kicking in Cairo and is persistent. It would be
presented in two parts. Aida, as an expression of Egyptian ambitions
is the first part, contrasted with the actual history. The second part
would deal with the actual Nile issues and the problems confronted.
Further, I must add that thesecond part would take a whiff from my
on-going work on the Nile dilemmas and the difficulties thereon in
Ethio-Egyptian relations—past, present and in the future. I started the
study in the middle of 2010,awakenedon one hand by Egypt’s
continuing lust and arrogance and, on the other, by a combination of
factors, both internal and external to Ethiopia, which call for reflection.
Even before the research work is completed, Aidahasimpelled me to
compare its theme with the actual events. Myintention is to remind my
readers “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life." All that is
needed is motive, as Oscar Wilde has ably shown in his essay The
Decay of Lying.
Standing where the high Priest had left him and unfazed by the
imminence of war, Radames blasts his prayers/wishes,expressing his
hope that Isis would choose him as commander of the Egyptian
forces. While a good warrior and a man in love at that point, already
two women so much wanting him, his fortunes, even by his volition,
have been linked to the pursuit of fame and glory only to impress
Aida. She is an Ethiopian slave in the Pharaoh’s Palace, captured as
war prisoner, along others, early on. Aida’s secret is that she was an
Ethiopian princess, about whom not a soul knows in the palace, save
that she is a slave—I presume a beautiful one at that! As it happens,
she is secretly in love with Radames.
The other woman is Amneris, the king’s daughter, who, while deeply
in love with Radames enormously, suffers with jealousy after she
discovered shortly before the arrival of the invading army that the man
for whom she had a special place in her heart was interested in Aida,
her slave. Before her father’s entry to the hall, Amneris (mezzo-
soprano) makes Radames understand her awareness of the lusts of his
heart saying, “In thy visage I trace a joy unwonted! What martial
ardor is beaming in thy noble glances! Ah me! How worthy were
of all envy; the woman whose dearly wish'd for presence; could
have power to kindle in thee such rapture! In your looks I trace a
joy unwonted."
Consequently, Khedive Ismail Pasha commissioned composer
Giuseppe Verdi in January 1871 long before his planned invasion of
Ethiopia in 1874-1876. However, the preparations had begun much
earlier. For instance, the great Ethiopianist, Prof Richard Pankhurst
writes that already at the beginning of his reign in 1872, Emperor
Yohannes IV had experienced strong pressure form the Egyptians,
due to Egypt’s continued surge downwards since the late 1860s,
mostly in the direction of eastern Sudan and the adjacent areas on the
Ethiopian borders. He notes, “On 20 May 1868, the Sultan of the
Ottoman Empire had transferred Massawa to the Egyptians, who
soon afterwards occupied the nearby port of Zulla, and instituted a
rigid blockade to prevent the import of arms by Yohannes” (The
Pankhurst History Library: A Page in Ethiopia's Late 19th
Century History The Reign of Emperor Yohannes IV: Part I,
www.linkethiopia.org/). There is no doubt that Aida is a true
expression of Egypt’s longstanding ambitions: the determination to
take control of the Nile waters and treat the Horn of Africa as its
backyard.
In most of its advances into Ethiopian territory, Egypt was aided by
power hungry warlords in the likes of Welde Mikel Selomon of
Hazega that needed modern weapons from the invader. Such
behaviour had been a curse that befell the nation at different times,
including by the actions of its saviours, unifiers and builders. The
lessons left by those experiences have relevance to today’s
generation, especially those in power—whether they would be
deluded by the magnitude of the day’s problems and abandon national
principles, choosing the temporary comforts of political expediency to
avoid confronting challenges. Before he assumed the throne,
Yohannes had done it to Tewodros, guiding the British to Maqdala.
Napier awarded him military aid worth approximately £500,000,
artillery, muskets, rifles, and munitions that in addition to his existing
formidable military capability had ensured his rise to the throne
(Harold Marcus, A History of Ethiopia, 1994).
Fortunately, the British did not occupy the country. After ensuring the
Emperor Tewodros’s demise and the destruction of Maqdala, the
Napier expeditionary force left the country, nearly as they got it. Of
course, Napier took with him the British prisoners Tewodros had held
and looted valuables, especially historical artefacts, including
numerous works of art and old manuscripts from churches and private
individuals some of which are still in display in the British Museum.
Menilik had done the same thing to Yohannes, especially when the
latter was trying to prevent foreign invasion. Historians refer to the 2
July 1888 conversation between Menilik and Count Antonelli, that
took place without the knowledge of Yohannes. Menilik is quoted as
saying, “he was breaking with the emperor Yohannes, that he
sought Rome's cooperation, and that he wanted ten thousand
remingtons with adequate ammunition. Of this, Prof. Marcus notes:
- Antonelli therefore advised his government to send Menilek
what he wanted and to schedule the occupation of Asmera
and Bogos for the outbreak of civil war. He then pushed the
king to agree that the additional territories would provide a
better frontier with Ethiopia and a temperate environment
for European soldiers. Menilek saw through the sophism,
but needed the Italian diversion more than he required
Bogos. Antonelli advised the king that Italian troops would
occupy the region as soon as he attacked Yohannes.
Similarly, taking advantage of the chaos of the infamous Zemene
Mesafint, the Era of Princes, Egypt took advantage of Ethiopia,
including using foreign mercenaries and domestic sell-outs. Prof
Harold Marcus writes, “Egyptians had occupied Gallabat
Matamma and all the ports of south Mitswa.” He further notes:
By early September 1875, Khedive Ismail had “ordered four
expeditions to take control over the Horn of Africa. Two were
successful, and Cairo won the important inland trading center of Harer
and consolidated its hold over the Somali coast.” The Swiss
mercenary Munzinger, who had been promoted to pasha and made
governor-general of eastern Sudan and the Red Sea Coast, was
“ordered to cross the hinterland of Tadjoura Djibouti and contact
Shewa.
Thanks to a trap set by the Afar of Awsa, who fought to retain control
over key trading routes, the force commanded by Munzinger on 14
November 1875 disastrously failed and he lost his life. The Egyptians
were perhaps influenced by the ease with which the British had
overthrown Tewodros in 1868, observes Prof R. Pankhurst, to attack
Yohannes and to occupy Adwa. They sent “a well-equipped Egyptian
force led by a Danish commander, Colonel Arendrup, and a number
of American officers, who had formerly served in the Confederate
forces in the American Civil War” and advanced from Massawa
inland. It was at the point of their crossing the Marab River they were
“badly mauled” at Gundet on 16 November 1875. It is written that
Egypt had sent a third force that also lost. Notwithstanding that, in
Aida Ethiopia is presented as invader.
Although Khedive Ismail’s transaction with Giuseppe Verdi was
indeed real, as per the agreement signed in June 1870, his actions far
advanced for his time—trying to impress the Europeans as an equal—
Cairo to this day denies that Aida has anything to do with any war
plans and preparations for the conquest of the Horn of Africa by the
mid-1870s. They also deny that it is linked to the opening of the Suez
Canal. Further, they disagree with any speculation by foreign music
historians, such as that Aida was composed either for the inauguration
of the Khedive Opera House, which the pasha ordered erected in
1869, or that of the Cairo Opera House in 1870. Their implausible
explanations seem to prefer to push the whole thing under the rug,
thereby leaving it bereft of explanations. Certainly, war plans are
supposed to be secret, as national security information. The irony is
that they do not admit it today either for a reason unclear to me at this
stage, although I could speculate.
Giuseppe Verdi was widely recognised for several of his superb
operatic works. Last autumn, the San Francisco Opera paid a
glowing tribute to Aida as “the grandest of grand operas, a brilliant
balance of spectacular pageantry and emotional intimacy” (www.
sfopera.com). Twice before Verdi had refused Khedive Ismail’s
enticement to compose the opera for him, “considering himself not
suited to composing operas on demand” (www.arena.it/en-US). The
khedive only succeeded in his third attempt, for which he paid Verdi
150,000 francs, a huge sumby then. After its completion, Aida was
performed in Cairo on 24 December 1871 and was rapturously
received.
Nevertheless, visibly missing during Aida’s premiere in Cairo was
Verdi himself. He protested that only politicians and dignitaries were
invited, with no attendance of members of the general public. For that
reason, Verdi arranged Aida’s real premiere at La Scala, Italy, on 8
February 1872, according to opera history, heavily involving himself in
that venture. Since 1873, Aida has been shown around the world
continuously. The opera returned to Egypt for the second time in
1994, after 123 years absence. This gap may be because of the
country’s circumstances, changed priorities since the 1940s, as Egypt
had been engrossed in the question of peace and security outside its
borders the pursuit of Arab leadership on its mind. At the same time,
it could also be due to awareness of the need for a balancing act in the
face of Middle East’s varied periods of religious fervour. Since Aida
was shown in the Giza pyramids about 16 years ago, it has almost
now become an annual event, a sign of Egypt’s cultural tourism
development and growing liberalism.
As Radames and Amneris were standing, the king enters the Palace
Hall, accompanied by the High Priest, ministers and the clergy. In the
presence of his dignitaries, the king asks (bass) to be informed about
the Ethiopian invasion of Egypt. A messenger waiting at the door is
brought into the hall, where he announces (tenor), “The Ethiopians
led by King Amonasro were marching on Thebes.” Immediately, the
King declares war and, on the nomination of the goddess Isis,
proclaims Radames commander of the Egyptian army.
Although Aida was torn between her love for her father the king, her
country and Radames, she utters the following words in dejection
(soprano):
- Thy brow may laurels crown! what! can my lips; Pronounce
language so impious! wish him; Victor o'er my father! o'er him
who wages war; But that I may be restored to my country, To
my kingdom, to the high station, I now perforce dissemble!
wish him conqueror, O'er my brothers! e'en now I see him
stained, With their blood so cherished, 'mid the clamorous,
Triumph of Egyptian battalions! Behind his chariot A king, my
father comes, his fettered captive! Return a conqueror…”
The war’s course ends with Egypt prevailing and Egypt taking captive
the Ethiopian monarch and his men. The king offers his daughter hand
in marriage to Radames. The Ethiopian king joins his daughter Aida in
captivity. As is always the case with opera, the story then becomes
that of human emotions: rage, sorrow, fate, nostalgia, love, betrayal,
heroism and vendetta and eventually death. Instead of Amneris,
Radmes shows determination to stick with his heart’s choice of Aida,
despite the honour Egypt had given him in leading its forces against
Ethiopia and the status of a privileged citizen for the victory he had
brought.
Like history, it seems, fate also has its will. Even without the union
between Radames and Amneris is realized,Radames falls from grace
and gets thrown to jail charged with treason. The justices gathered in
the temple sentence him to be buried alive. This time, Aida had
secretly entered the prison where she knew they would throw him
choosing to die with him. Treason charges were brought against him
because the High Priest had seen him talking to Egypt’s enemies—the
prisoner Ethiopian king. In truth, Radames was actually plotting their
escape, since he was in love with his daughter. If it were up to him, he
had chosen to escape with the princess, which in this troubled time is
a positive element that underlines a continuing link between the two
countries. The Aida story ends with Aida and Radames accepting
their fate, in the lower floor of the vault of the temple of Vulcan.
Amneris weeps and prays to the goddess Isis from the upper floor for
the loss of her love. Aida dies in Radames' arms.
In real life, the outcome of Khedive Ismail’s extravagant adventure
had not brought him what he had hoped for. History had dealt him a
different hand at Gundet and Gura. Whatever Egypt’s driving force
was, fortunately for Ethiopia, the outcome of the war that followed
Aida’s performance a short five years later rather became totally
different from what is ascribed in Aida, or the Khedive had badly
wanted or his commanders, some of them European mercenaries from
different countries, including fifty Americans (The Journal of Military
History - Volume 70, Number 1, January 2006), had ever
anticipated. In the words of Haggai Erlich, the Battles of Gundet and
Gura became “a turning point in the fortunes of Egypt in the Horn of
Africa” (The Cross and the River: Ethiopia, Egypt, and the Nile,
2002).
The whole ambition of the khedive and Ethiopia’s repulsion of it is
synoptically captured by Prof Donald Crummy in his book Land and
Society in the Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia, 2000, where he
relates:
- In 1870s Khedive Ismail, grandson of Muhammed Ali,
embarked on an ambitious plan to create an Egyptian
empire in the greater Nile Valley and north east Africa. So
far as Ethiopia is concerned, this plan entailed three
expeditions, a successful one, which led to the occupation
of Harar, from 1875-1882, and two expeditions from
Massawa into northern Ethiopia, in 1875-1876. Yohannes
turned back these latter invasions with victory in the bitter
battles of Gundet and Gura. Under Yohannes leadership,
Ethiopia proved able to frustrate Egypt’s schemes for a
larger empire, but it was not able to dislodge Egypt from its
established holdings in the region.
In his analysis of the Battles of Gundet and Gura, the Ethiopian
historian Bahru Zewde insightfully observes that those two victories
were even more remarkable than their famous successor, the Battle of
Adwa, following which Menilik was to lead a united Ethiopia against
the Italians, while Yohannes faced the Egyptians as the head of a
divided house. He further adds:
- For Egypt, the defeat had more deadly effects than was to
be the case for Italy two decades later. The Ethiopian
victory hastened Ismail’s downfall and the subsequent
British occupation of Egypt. Yohannes, on the other hand,
came out of the conflict with material and psychological
gains. The modern arms, including some twenty cannon that
he captured from the enemy, strengthened his military
position vis-à-vis his internal rivals like Menilik...Yet in the
immediate aftermath, the Gundet and Gura victories were to
remain hollow. Ethiopia gained little in practical terms. The
Egyptians conditions for peace soon after their defeat leave
us uncertain as to who was the victor and who the
vanquished. Not only they demand the repatriation of the
Egyptian prisoners and guarantees of trade, but they also
required the restoration of their captured arms and
cessation of Ethiopian troop movements in Hamasen.
Ever since, at least, there has not been any direct military engagement
between Ethiopia and Egypt, chastened by the lessons of history.
Nevertheless, the question of equal access by all co-riparians for
utilisation of the Nile River was and still istop most national security
concerns and priorities for both countries. Nevertheless, there is
growing noise about the texture of each side’s concerns and needs; I
sense that path is full of unexploded mines, not at all capable of
serving as bridge over the complex Nile impasse. Ethiopia and Egypt
are capable of working common solution, if only Egypt begins to
work from a more comprehensive model, instead of its fixation with
the Ismailian model that did not even work, despite the huge and well
armed forces and the pomp of opera. Neither resort to conflictsand
destabilisation nor cajoling of water source countries with economic
and technical cooperation could win the day.
Aida is instructive at so many levels. Most importantly, reality dictates
that Egypt see wisdom in the words of the respected Egyptian
journalist, freedom of thought and equality activist and writer Iqbal
Baraka, who has taken it upon herself to exorcise the false belief in
Egyptian thinking that the Nile is Egypt’s alone. In It is not our Nile,
Ms Baraka laments:
- It never happened in any era or age in which Egypt paid
attention to the fact [that] the Nile has other wives and
sons who should share in the great heritage (the Nile). We
were brought up to believe in a great myth that the Nile is
exclusively Egypt’s own and we went on making love songs
about Egypt and showing our pride to the world that we
were able to build a great civilization along its [banks].
~ Quoted in Sudan Tribune,The Egyptian role in Sudan’s development
and underdevelopment 1899-2010, 27 June 2010.
(to be continued)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The writer was a former civil servant and diplomat in the Ethiopian
government. Later he served as International Staff with the
United Nations and is currently in retirement, devoting his time for
research and writing. He can be reached at kef730@gmail.com.
www.opera.stanford.edu/Verdi/Aida/libnotes.htm
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