Egypt in the time of the Pharaohs - a secret, impossible love: the slave Aida and the military commander Radamès yearn to spend their lives together, and it is not only their unequal status that prevents them. The pharaoh’s passionate daughter Amneris also has eyes for the dapper captain and suspects her shy servant to be her rival. No one suspects that Aida is in fact the captured princess of Ethiopia. When the gods choose Radamès to command the decisive battle against the Ethiopians, Aida is plunged into an irresolvable conflict of conscience. This is compounded by Aida's father, King Amonasro, after he too is led into Egyptian captivity by the victorious Radamès. Aida sets out to use the love of both men to elicit from Radamès the secret military strategy against Ethiopia. For committing high treason, the once glorified commander is sentenced to death. Not even Amneris is able to mitigate the harsh sentence. Only in their last hour are the lovers truly united.

With 'Aida', Giuseppe Verdi fashioned a great opera about the immortality of love. Large and grandiose crowd scenes are contrasted with passionate, almost chamber-like episodes in which the longings and conflicts of the characters are beguilingly expressed by the music. Whether setting scenes of mystical incantation the temple, nocturnal encounters on the banks of the Nile, or dazzling triumphal set pieces, the old master of Italian opera strikes exactly the right, stirring note for every mood. With Aida's lyrical arias, Radamès' dreamy romance 'Holde Aida', or the opulent Triumphal March, Verdi added immortal melodies to the opera literature; and Aida's conflicts with her father and the pharaoh's daughter are brilliant musical-psychological depictions. More than almost any other opera, Verdi's masterpiece fits harmoniously into the rough, rocky landscape of Steinbruch St. Margarethen.