The Plot
ACT ONE
In the Egyptian wing of a modern museum, were a man and a woman touring the exhibit catch each other's eyes. AMNERIS, a female Pharaoh, comes to life (Every Story Is a Love Story) and trandsports us to ancient Egypt, were RADAMES, Captain of the Egyptian Army, is returning from an expedition through the land of Nubia, Egypt's long-time enemy (Fortune Favors the Brave). When his soldiers captivated by the fierce and majestic AIDA (The Past Is Another Land). Brought to Egypt as a slave, Aida is saved from certain death in the copper mines by Radames, who sends her as a handmainen to Princess Amneris, his betrothed. Radames's father , Prime Minister ZOZER, greets his son with news that PHARAOH is dying and Radames must prepare to become the next ruler of Egypt (Another Pyramid).
Radames's Nubian servant, MEREB is a young man who has learned the tricks of survival in Egypt. Delivering Aida to the place, he recognizes her as the daughter of the Nubian King (How I Know You). She commands him to keep her identity secert, lets the Egyptians kill her. Presented to Amneris, Aida perceives that Princess's love for (My Strongest Suit) only serves as a mask for her insecurities. At a banquet, Pharaoh announces that Radames and Amneris will wed in seven days, Leaving the Captain distraught that his days as an explorerhave ended. Together he and Aida share their dreams and regrets (Enchantment Passing Through).
Later that night, Amneris worries about her father's illness, and finds in Aida someone who understands and encourages her (My Strongest Suit-Reprise). Bursting into his fiancee's chamber, Radames steals a moment with Aida to share his growing attraction to her. Taken by Mereb to the Nubian camp, Aida submits to her people's pleas to lead them (Dance of the Robe). When she implores Radames to help the Nubians, he opens his heart by giving his possessions to them (Not Me) and declaring his love for her (Elaborate Lives). Unable to fight her feeling any longer, she falls into enbrace.
Act Two
Aida, Amneris and Radames now find themselves entagled in conflicted loyalties and emotions (A Step Too Far). Aida and ereb bribe their way into the prison, were Aida is reunited with her father, AMONASRO Mereb hatches a plan to escape with the King during the commotion of Amneris's wedding. To save her father and nation, Aida must betray the man she loves (EAS AS LIFE)> Zoser discovers Radames's affair and warns his son that it could cost him the throne, but Radames no longer shares his father's ambitions (Like Father, Like Son). Zoser orders his men to find Aida and kill her.
At the Nubian camp, Aida recieves and apology from Radames (Radames's Letter) for the thoughtless way he acted upon hearing of Amonasro's capture. When egyptian soldiers arrive seeking Aida, NEHEBKA sacrifices herself to her Princess can live. Now even more determined to leave Radames forever, Aida goes to say goodbye to him over Mereb's objections. (How I Know You-Reprise). Radames informs Aida that he's calling off the wedding. She knows this would ruin her father's escape and tells him he must go through with it (Written in the Stars). Radames agrees, on condition that she escape to freedom on a boat he will provide. The heartbroken lovers part, but Amneris has overheard their entire conversation and faces the fact that her upcoming marriage is a sham (I Know the Truth).
News of Amonasro's escape disrupts Amneris's wedding. Radames learns the truth of Aida's identity whe he arrives at the docks just as she's about to board his boat with her father. In the chaos, Zoser slays Mereb and Radames makes possible Amonasro's escape. Radames and Aida are then arrested for treason. At the ensuing trial, PharAoh sentence both Aida and Radames to e buried alive. Amneris rises to her role as future Pharaoh by convincing her father to let the lovers die in the same tomb, an act of mercy for two people she comes to love. Facing death, Aida looks to Radames for strength (Elaborate Lives-Reprise). As they are slowly deprived of light and air (Enchantment Passing Through-Reprise). Radames swears he will searh for a hundread lifetimes to find her again. Back in the contemporary museum, the spirit of Amneris watches (Every Story Is a Love Story-Reprise) as the modern man and woman are strangely drawn to one onother. They are the reincarnations of Aida and Radames, finding in each other a new beginning.
The world of Aida
Egypt Today~Official Name: Arab Republic of Egypt
~Population: Over 80,000,000
~Government Type: Republic
~Capital City: Cairo
~Currency:Egyptian Pound
~Official Language: Arabic
~Major Waterway: The Nile River
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt (3150 BCE) was an advanced society composed of farmers, lavores, artists, craftsmen, engineers and scientists. There were even established physicians, who dew medicines from plants and hervs and passed their knowledge along to the Greeks, Romans and Arabs. Ancient Egyptians were among the first to create a calendar, observe and record the motions of the stars, and construct massive pyramids and temples that stand to this day.
All buisness at the time was conducted through the parter system at local outdoor markets; there was no currency. Goods were given value in debens, small copper weights. An ox might be valued at one hundred debends, for instance, and trade for an amount of grain of equal value, but no debens were actually exchanged. While merchants successfully trade up and down the Red Sea and along the coast of the Mediterranean, the desert and the Nile proved to be barriers in trading further inland. Despite these challenges, Ancient Egyptions still manage to trade frequently with Nubia, their closest neighbor.
Nubia
Nubia, "the land upriver," was Egypt's most important neighbor, and it included the territories of modern-day Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. Relations between Egypt and Nubia date bace to 2500 BCE, and include periods of warfare, trade, colonization and domination.
Egypt's main interest in Nubia was economic; it was Egypt's primary source of hard stone, copper, gold and other metals.
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