I highly recommend to anyone who goes to see the version of Aida signed by Shirin Neshat and that inaugurates the Liceu season, read the article "The empire in action: Aida by Verdi", by Edward W. Said, included in Culture and imperialism. Because it can help to understand the conceptual key of the show. Neshat interprets Verdi's opera based on themes such as decolonialism and feminism. And she does so with scenes without concessions to the gallery, but without discarding an undeniable poetic sense. In fact, Aida speaks to us about the abuse of theocracies, about militaristic savagery, and about the refugees who flee wars to end up in no-man's-lands. Nothing too far from the catastrophic spectacle that we from the West watch comfortably in front of the television, curled up on our sofas at home and with a remote control to change what is unbearable to our gaze. In this sense, the gaze of the Iranian Shirin Neshat is not at all compassionate, and for that reason, it can be uncomfortable.However, the problem with the show lies in the fact that the oriental artist masters the video-artistic language but not the theatrical one. And the result is excessively contrasted between some well-found performative and conceptual elements and a stereotypical and even dated stage movement of singers or—in the case of Anna Netrebko's gestures—downright ridiculous. Nor is it helped by some scenes located in the intermissions which, although personally I found them stimulating, may clash with the tradition of an opera that is the most watched and performed at the Liceu, always from a classical perspective and artificial historicism. Nevertheless, it must be said that the show is effective, risky, and of unquestionable scenic category.Aida is not a chamber opera, but it is intimate despite the most famous scenes (especially the second one of the second act), of great spectacularity. But the rest is concentrated on a story of loves and hates for which Verdi writes wise and subtle music. And it must be served with good taste and precision. And although Antonello Manacorda's direction is never messy, it does at least align well with the guidelines of the score and serves it with detail and good taste. The response of the house orchestra was up to the task, not to mention a simply capital choir, especially the male one (the scene of the temple of Vulcan is brilliant).

"I live in a country, the United States, which together with Israel has attacked my country, Iran," says visual artist Shirin Neshat (Qazvin, 1957). She explains this during a break in rehearsals for the production of the opera Aida, by Verdi, for which she is the stage director and which will inaugurate the 2026-2027 season of the Gran Teatre del Liceu on September 25th. Seventeen performances will be held until October 15th, including one for those under 35 on September 23rd. "Aida is an Ethiopian princess in love with Radames, an Egyptian general who will invade her country. And the taxes I pay in the United States have been used to attack Iran, where my relatives live," recalls Neshat, known for works about women in the Middle East, "situated between political tyranny and religious fanaticism, who try to defend both their individuality and their humanity"; women who, in addition to contexts of oppression, also suffer from Western gazes fueled by orientalist stereotypes.