After working with Verdi on the libretto for Don Carlos [see the Don Carlo articles in Operapaedia] for the Paris Opéra, Camille du Locle tried in vain to interest the composer in another project for the French capitol. Verdi would have none of it. His experience with the Opéra was an unpleasant one overall and he considered any kind of a return tantamount to a death wish. But du Locle persisted, sending the composer a number of possible ideas for operatic treatment. The only one that seemed to inspire Verdi was a synopsis of an opera set in ancient Egypt based on a story by Auguste Mariette. Mariette was an important Egyptologist who lived in Cairo and was an intimate of the Khedive who was busy at the time building the Suez Canal. (Mariette, originally an employee of the Louvre, was sent to Egypt to discover and catalogue Coptic manuscripts but in his explorations stumbled upon some of the most spectacular discoveries of the 19th century, including the Temple of Serapis and the tombs of the Apis bulls). Mariette suggested to the ruler that an opera be commissioned from a famous composer (Verdi, Gounod and Wagner were suggested, in that order) to celebrate this monumental achievement. The task was given over by Mariette to du Locle who had marital connections to the administrator of the Paris Opéra. (Mariette also hoped for a return to visit France with his family and he pushed du Locle to complete the deal).
Verdi finally accepted the proposal of Aida after it was threatened that the commission might be offered to Wagner! Du Locle wished to make Aida a French grand opera (and it does, indeed, resemble some of the better forms of that genre, at least structurally) and offered his libretto in French, but Verdi insisted that it be translated into Italian and he chose another Don Carlos collaborator, Antonio Ghislanzoni, to provide that translation as well as some additions to the libretto itself. However, it seems that Verdi himself was as involved in the production of this libretto as in any other of his operas.
The oft-repeated stories that Aida was written for the opening of the canal or that it was written for the premiere of the Cairo Opera House are both incorrect. Du Locle’s synopsis of the story wasn’t received by Verdi until after the canal was completed, and the opera house had opened even earlier! It may well have been the Khedive’s original intention to have an opera celebrate the canal, but it certainly didn’t work out that way. And, in fact, the original date of the performance Aida in Cairo (January, 1871) had to be postponed because the scenery was stuck in Paris during the Franco-Prussian war and nothing was being shipped in or out of the country. The premiere ended up being eleven months late, finally occurring on Christmas Eve, 1871.
The Italian premiere of Aida took place on February 8, 1872 with the great soprano Teresa Stoltz in the title role. The opera was enthusiastically received both in Cairo and Milan. Some of the critics actually accused him of using some Wagnerian techniques, an accusation he dismissed as pure hogwash.