My Darlin' Aida (music by Giuseppe Verdi; book & lyrics by Charles Friedman) shifts its scene from the Memphis, Egypt of Aida to Memphis, Tenn. in 1861. Aida, Amneris and Radames of Verdi's opera become respectively a lovely slave girl (Elaine Malbin), her imperious young mistress (Dorothy Sarnoff) and a Confederate officer (Howard Jarratt) who loves the slave girl but is engaged to her mistress. The story is a tangle of Negro uprisings, hooded night riders, beatings, and death for the lovers.
The result, though not dull, is fairly distressing. No opera better lends itself to spectacle than Aida, and thanks to...
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