Who Do You Love

For all its visual splendor and exotic atmosphere, Aida is fundamentally an intimate tale of love and social responsibility. At its center is the romantic triangle of Radamès, Aida, and Amneris, which by extension mirrors Radamès’s devotion to his native Egypt and Aida’s to her beloved Ethiopia. In this Classroom Activity, students will use a tool from the social sciences, the sociogram, to untangle the complicated allegiances and animosity within and among Verdi’s characters. They will:

• listen to operatic selections revealing characters’ attitudes and concerns
• use a clearly defined method to take notes on the feelings expressed
• construct sociograms depicting the feelings and relationships that drive the opera
• predict, explain, and debate characters’ decisions based on the sociograms they have constructed

Aida is a grand spectacle set in an ancient society as imagined by 19th-century French and Italian intellectuals and artists. Though its setting and depiction of Egyptian culture may be fictitious, the opera rests on timeless truths about social relations: love, hate, manipulation, seduction, betrayal, responsibility, and belief. Verdi was interested in recent advances in archeology, but more importantly, he might also have considered another social science that blossomed during his lifetime: sociology. In this activity, students will use a tool from that discipline—the sociogram—to explore relationships among Verdi’s Egyptian and Ethiopian characters.

STEP 1: INTRODUCING THE SOCIOGRAM

The sociogram, a graphic representation of interpersonal relations, can be used to illuminate the love triangle of Aida. Introduce the concept of the sociogram to your class by distributing the reproducible Data 2 Ways on page 23 of this guide. This reproducible shows two different ways to notate the relationships among a group of fourth-grade children (a smaller version can be seen below).

The data table at the top of the page is simply a record of the children’s feelings. The data indicates each child’s feelings toward one of the others. Three indicators are used:

+ means the child likes the other
– means the child does not like the other
~ means the child feels neutral toward the other

Reading the table from left to right:

• Abigail doesn’t like Ben, but likes Charlie and Diana.
• Ben doesn’t like Abigail, likes Charlie, and is neutral toward Diana.
• Charlie doesn’t like Abigail, likes Ben, and is neutral toward Diana.
• Diana likes Abigail and Ben, and is neutral toward Charlie.

At the bottom of the page, a sociogram provides a graphic depiction of the same data. It doesn’t simply record, but shows, the relationships among the children. Note that three types of symbols are used in the sociogram:

• Shapes: A triangle represents a male; a circle represents a female.
• Lines: A solid line represents “like.” A dotted line represents “dislike.” A wavy line represents “neutral feeling.”
• Arrowheads: The arrowheads indicate the direction of the feeling. Where feelings are mutual, a single line appears with two arrowheads.

Allow students a few minutes to compare the data table and sociogram and to trace the relationships depicted. Do these sound like typical relationships among fourthgrade boys and girls? Why? (The sociogram reveals strong intra-gender friendships, but different—and developmentally typical—patterns of inter-gender feelings: The girls are more interested in boys than the boys are in girls.)

Sociologists often collect data for sociograms by observing behavior. In Step 2, students collect their data by listening to conversations from Aida.

STEP 2: DATA COLLECTION

Students can collect data on the characters’ feelings by “eavesdropping” on conversations in several scenes from Aida. The class should listen to each excerpt as a group, reading along with the texts and translations included on the reproducible Listening In. (If appropriate in your classroom, they may enjoy discussing the excerpt as well.)

Then they should use the data table on the reproducible Sociological Observations to record their observations about the feelings expressed, before going on to the next excerpt. 

Notes on filling out the data table:

The activity explores feelings and relationships among the opera’s three principals:

• the Egyptian military leader, Radamès,
• the Egyptian princess, Amneris, and
• the Ethiopian princess, Aida, who is enslaved to Amneris.

These are listed on the data table’s vertical axis. But the musical excerpts also reveal information about relations with other characters, such as the Ethiopian king Amonasro, as well as about characters’ feelings toward their native lands. These additional topics are listed on the horizontal axis.

Students should add indicators (+, -, and ~ symbols) after listening to each excerpt, then compile their observations at Step 3.

Students need not include an indicator in every single cell for every excerpt. If there is no information about a character’s feelings toward a person or place, they may leave the corresponding cell blank.

A LISTENING GUIDE TO THE EXCERPTS 

EXCERPT 1

Track 1 presents the very first notes of Verdi’s prelude to Aida. This melody represents Aida herself. Students should listen for it as the excerpt continues.

Tracks 2 through 6, from early in Act I, Scene 1, summarize Aida’s romantic triangle in less than a minute and a half.

Track 2: Radamès expresses his hope that the goddess Isis will choose him as leader of Egypt’s forces in the coming battle with Ethiopia.

Track 3: Amneris asks Radamès whether he has another, more romantic dream. She evidently hopes that dream involves herself.

Track 4: Radamès worries that Amneris has discovered his love for Aida.

Track 5: Amneris becomes suspicious of Radamès’s hesitation.

Track 6: The orchestral phrase heard in Track 1 wordlessly brings Aida onto the stage, and Radamès responds by exclaiming “It’s her!”

Students should be able to discern from this excerpt that Radamès has strong positive feelings for both his native Egypt and for Aida, while Amneris is attracted Olga Borodina as Amneris to Radamès. No information is provided about Aida. Some students may infer that Radamès is not attracted to Amneris. The entire excerpt, including an elision between Tracks 5 and 6, can be heard in Track 7.

EXCERPT 2

Tracks 8 through 12, from later in Act I, Scene 1, reveal Aida’s feelings toward her native Ethiopia and toward Radamès.

Track 8: Here, the priests, ministers and captains of Egypt all cry out for war and for the extermination of their Ethiopian enemy.

Track 9: Aida herself leads the call for victory.

Track 10: Alone now, Aida catches herself: How could she wish for Egypt’s victory—which means the defeat of Ethiopia and her father, its king?

Track 11: Aida changes position, calling now for the gods to bring her father victory, and to return her to him.

Track 12: But she catches herself yet again: How can she call for the defeat of her beloved Radamès, the only hope in her enslavement?

This excerpt should provide students with a sense of Aida’s ambivalent feelings toward Egypt and her homeland, complicated by her conflicting loves for her father and Radamès.

The entire excerpt, including an elision between Tracks 10 and 11, can be heard in Track 13.

EXCERPT 3

In Act II, Scene 1, with Radamès not yet returned from war, Amneris tries to confirm her suspicion that he and Aida are in love.

Track 14: Amneris announces to Aida that she, the daughter of Pharaoh, is Aida’s rival for the love of Radamès.

Track 15: Aida responds with royal ferocity, then remembers that Amneris knows her only as a slave, not as a princess of Ethiopia. She suddenly worries that she has revealed more than she intended.

Track 16: Aida’s tone changes to one of submission and supplication.

Track 17: Amneris flaunts her certainty that she will win Radamès over.

This excerpt conveys the mutual dislike of Aida and Amneris, but it also reveals them as wily adversaries, Amneris through assertion and Aida by stealth. The entire excerpt can be heard in Track 18.

EXCERPT 4

Act III finds Aida outside the Temple of Isis. Awaiting a secret rendezvous with Radamès, she is surprised by her father, who has escaped Egypt’s prison. Amonasro plays on his daughter’s love of country. Aida finds herself caught between responsibility and romance.

Track 19: Amonasro lays out the strategic situation: Ethiopia’s army can be victorious if they learn Egypt’s intended path of attack—and only Aida is in a position to gather that intelligence. She seems not to understand.

Track 20: Amonasro explains that she can coax the information out of her lover—a plan Aida instinctively rejects.

Track 21: Amonasro plays on Aida’s feelings, accusing her of having become nothing more than a slave, unworthy to be his daughter.

Track 22: Aida insists on her loyalty to Ethiopia.

In Excerpt 2, Aida’s conflicting loves caused her worry, but here the stakes are raised. As her father plays upon her feelings, she feels forced to take sides—even by betraying her beloved Radamès.

The entire excerpt can be heard in Track 23.

STEP 3: CONSTRUCTING A SOCIOGRAM

Having collected data on the relationships in Aida, students can now construct their sociograms, using the reproducible Sociogram Construction Site.

The key at the bottom of the reproducible includes symbols for a basic set of social relationships. Notice the addition of squares as symbols for places. Students may enjoy enhancing the list by devising connectors of different thicknesses or colors to

• distinguish between weak and stronger feelings,
• distinguish friendship and romantic love,
• distinguish romantic love from familial love, or
• depict such emotions as jealousy, guilt, and shame.

Also, while simple geometric shapes are generally used in sociograms, students may enjoy color-coding the shapes to include even more information, such as age or social status.

The arrangement of elements in a sociogram is a matter of choice. Students may prefer to put one character (e.g., Aida) at the center of the diagram, just as Verdi puts her at the center of the opera. Or they may prefer to create a web like the one seen on the reproducible Data 2 Ways. They should feel free to experiment with different arrangements of characters and objects. (Sticky notes can make it easier to try different configurations.)

STEP 4: DISCUSSING THE SOCIOGRAM

Since each student will have constructed his or her own diagram of the relationships in Aida, it can be useful to have students share, explain, and discuss their choices. Depending on their awareness of the opera and its resolution, they can use their diagrams to predict and/or explain Aida’s, Radamès’s, and Amneris’s behaviors in the remainder of Act III and in Act IV.

STEP 4A (OPTIONAL)

After discussing the characters’ “future” behavior, students may find it instructive to listen to a fifth excerpt: the scene in which Aida does betray Radamès.

STEP 5 (OPTIONAL)

Act III comes to an end with a fateful meeting between Aida and Radamès. Aida convinces her lover that their only salvation is escape—but she also has another intention.

Track 24: Aida and Radamès sing of their plan to keep their love safe by escaping together—though a final chord indicates that all may not be as idyllic as it seems.

Track 25: Aida asks an apparently innocent question: Is there an escape route free of Egyptian troops?

Track 26: Radamès answers confidently but also vaguely.

Track 27: Aida presses the point. (You may want to pause here to have students guess at Radamès’s reaction: Why is Aida not satisfied with his earlier response?)

Track 28: Radamès reveals the army’s path. (Again, students may enjoy guessing what comes next—whether this revelation will be of consequence.)

Track 29: Amonasro appears. He has heard the secret and reveals that he is Aida’s father and king of Ethiopia. Radamès realizes that he has betrayed his homeland.

The entire excerpt can be heard in Track 30.

Having analyzed the social relationships that bind and divide the characters in Aida, students are prepared to consider a question particularly relevant to adolescents: Must feelings and social roles dictate behavior? Does Aida do the right thing in eliciting key intelligence from Radamès? Does she have a choice? Students can write persuasive essays elaborating their views—and personal experiences—on the influence of love, peer and family pressures, and self-image in making difficult life decisions.