"I have cheated him," she murmured. "I am dying." Hearing this the Count made an outcry and his guards rushed in.
"Away with him!" he shouted, pointing to Manrico; and Manrico was torn from Leonora, as she sank back dead. He was bound and hustled out, while Azucena was awakened by the confused sounds. She sat up and called desperately:
"Manrico!" Finding him gone and seeing di Luna, "Where hast thou taken him?" she screamed, tearing her gray hair.
"See--" and di Luna dragged her to the barred window. "See! The knife falls--look upon the sight, old fiend." She saw Manrico's head struck from his shoulders as the day dawned. With a frightful shriek she cried:
"Mother, I am avenged! Fiend! he was thy brother!" Di Luna looked first at the dying gipsy, then at the horrid scene below, and staggered back, unable to speak his brother's name. His peace was destroyed forever.
CHARACTERS OF THE OPERA, WITH THE ORIGINAL CASTS AS PRESENTED AT THE FIRST PERFORMANCES
Aïda Signora Pozzoni Signora Stolz Amneris Grossi Waldmann Radames Signor Mongini Signor Fancelli Amonasro Steller Pandolfini Ramphis Medini Maini The King Costa Pavoleri Messenger Bottardi Vistarini
Priests, priestesses, ministers, captains, soldiers, officials, Ethiopian slaves, prisoners, Egyptian populace, etc., etc.
The time of the story is when the Pharaohs were puissant, and the scenes are laid in the cities of Thebes and Memphis.
Composer: Giuseppe Verdi. Author: A. Ghislanzoni.
The opera was first sung at Cairo, Egypt, December 27, 1871; at Milan, February 8, 1872.
All Egypt was troubled with wars and rumours of wars, and in Memphis the court of the King was anxiously awaiting the decision of the Goddess Isis, as to who should lead the Egyptian army against Egypt's enemies. The great hall of the Memphis palace was beautifully ornamented with statues and flowers, and from its colonnades of white marble one could see the pyramids and the palaces of the city. It was in this vast and beautiful hall that Radames, a gallant soldier and favourite of the Egyptian court, met Ramphis, the High Priest, on the day when the Oracle, Isis, was to choose the general of the army.
Isis had already spoken, and Ramphis knew it, but he did not tell Radames. Together they spoke of Radames's loyal wish to serve his people, either as a great general or as a soldier. He was too modest to think that Isis would choose him, out of all the worthy men of the army, to lead the hosts of Egypt. His desire to do valorous deeds was inspired by his love for a slave girl, who attended the Princess Amneris. The slave's name was Aïda. The only thing that saddened him at the moment, was the fact of Aïda being an Ethiopian, for it was the Ethiopians whom the Egyptians were about to war against.