Despite its ‘exotic’ locale, Aida represents the culmination of an important strand in Verdi’s output in which hapless individuals are pitted against the implacable forces of church and state. It’s an outstanding example of 19th-century Italian opera, and yet the sheer quantity and quality of its ceremonial music can overpower the human drama, not to mention designers who often dwarf the singers with the pyramids and temples of Ancient Egypt. In short, a desire to fill the stage with horses, camels and the odd elephant or two can fatally overpower the work’s emotional nuts and bolts, obscuring issues of war, death and patriotism about which the anti-militarist and anti-imperialist Verdi cared deeply.

The Royal Opera House’s Aida. All photos © Tristram Kenton

Attempts to bring the work up to date have been mixed. Highlighting more modern colonial elements may merely replace pharaonic chocolate box imagery with 19th-century bustles and fezzes. Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour’s 2015 gaudy update tried to score political points but wound up midway between Arab oil state and low-budget sci-fi. Thank heavens then for Robert Carsen’s new production for the Royal Opera House, a staging...