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Subject Area: Music
Topic: Opera and Liberty

Scene V - Giuseppe Verdi, Aida by Antonio Ghislanzoni, music by Giuseppe Verdi [1871]

Edition used:

Aida by Antonio Ghislanzoni, music by Giuseppe Verdi, edited with an introduction by W.J. Henderson (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1911).

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


Scene V

Interior of the temple of Vulcan at Memphis. A mysterious light shining from above. A long row of columns, one behind the other, vanishing in the distance.—Statues of various Divinities. In the middle of the stage, above a platform carpeted with rich stuffs, rises the altar surmounted by the sacred emblems.—Golden tripods on which incense is burning.

Priests and Priestesses.—Ramphis at the foot of the altar.—Later Rhadames.—From within is heard the singing of the Priestesses accompanied by a harp.

priestesses

  • (Within.)
  • Omnipotent Phtha! of creation,
  • Spirit life-giving, pure!
  • Thee, in our prayer, we invoke!
  • Phtha, who pervadest the whole of creation,
  • Spirit of fruitfulness,
  • Thee, in our prayer, we invoke!
  • Flame uncreated, eternal,
  • Sovereign dispenser of light,
  • Thee, in our prayer, we invoke!

priests

  • Thou, who all things hast created,
  • The water, the earth, and the sky,
  • Thee, in our prayer, we invoke!
  • Thou, who of thine own nature,
  • Art son as well as father,
  • Thee, in our prayer, we invoke!
  • Life of all things created,
  • Giver of love everlasting,
  • Thee, in our prayer, we invoke!
  • [Rhadames enters without his armor.—As he advances to the altar the priestesses (corps de ballet) perform their sacred dance.—There is placed on Rhadames’ head a silver veil.]

ramphis

Mortal, beloved of the gods, to thee is confided the destiny of Egypt. The sacred sword, divinely tempered, is placed in thy hands, to bring upon the enemy terror and ruin and death.

  • (Turning to the god.)
  • O God, protector, avenger
  • Of all we hold most dear,
  • Thy mighty hand extending,
  • Save the Egyptian soil.

rhadames

  • O God, thou judge of battles,
  • The path of war make clear,
  • Protecting and defending,
  • Egypt’s most sacred soil!
  • [During the investiture of Rhadames with the sacred armor, the Priests and Priestesses resume the devotional hymn and the mystic dance.]

end of the first act

ACT II