09/03/2025
Trigger Warning: This post mentions minstrel shows and includes an image of a man in blackface.
✨Welcome back!✨
Today’s takes us to Verdi’s “Aida”, an opera that is not only loved by many, but also the subject of quite some controversy. For many years, performers used blackface to portray the Ethiopian characters in Aida, and while it was once defended as “tradition,” it has no place on today’s stage. Although it is not opera’s proudest moment in history, sometimes looking at the past honestly can alter and change the future of opera for good, so that we can be more authentic, inclusive, and respectful.