A Western Fantasy Placed in the East
— on Edward Said’s Orientalism Critique of Aida
— on Edward Said’s Orientalism Critique of Aida
Introduction
In Said’s (1993) ‘the Empire at Work: Aida’, he analyzed the process of the creation of Aida by Verdi, together with the effort of Mariette and others, and how this opera exemplifies Orientalism at work. In a nutshell, Said placed Aida in the historical background of the era of colonialism and imperialism by Europe. Though Verdi tried hard to revive the Old Kingdom on stage, he still failed to exclude the influence of historical context. Drawing on other critiques, this paper asserts that Said’s argument for Orientalist elements in Aida is a rather precise reflection upon the creation of the opera and its content. The reason for this thesis is twofold: 1) the opera itself contains elements that symbolize Western idealization and imagination of the East; 2) this is due to the limitation of the historical context, resulting in the inevitable Orientalist interpretation of the East. The first section of the paper follows the arguments of Said’s and the analysis of the opera, therefore focusing on the creation and its historical context. The second section will be focused on the elements of the opera itself is a Western Idealization of the East. Later sections of the paper will deal with a few counterarguments. This paper will end with some concluding remarks and implications for future direction.
In Said’s (1993) ‘the Empire at Work: Aida’, he analyzed the process of the creation of Aida by Verdi, together with the effort of Mariette and others, and how this opera exemplifies Orientalism at work. In a nutshell, Said placed Aida in the historical background of the era of colonialism and imperialism by Europe. Though Verdi tried hard to revive the Old Kingdom on stage, he still failed to exclude the influence of historical context. Drawing on other critiques, this paper asserts that Said’s argument for Orientalist elements in Aida is a rather precise reflection upon the creation of the opera and its content. The reason for this thesis is twofold: 1) the opera itself contains elements that symbolize Western idealization and imagination of the East; 2) this is due to the limitation of the historical context, resulting in the inevitable Orientalist interpretation of the East. The first section of the paper follows the arguments of Said’s and the analysis of the opera, therefore focusing on the creation and its historical context. The second section will be focused on the elements of the opera itself is a Western Idealization of the East. Later sections of the paper will deal with a few counterarguments. This paper will end with some concluding remarks and implications for future direction.
介绍
在赛义德（1993）的《工作中的帝国：艾达》中，他分析了威尔第（Verdi）创作艾达的过程，以及马里埃特（Mariette）等人的努力，以及该歌剧如何体现工作中的东方主义。简而言之，赛义德将艾达置于欧洲殖民主义和帝国主义时代的历史背景中。尽管威尔第在舞台上努力复兴旧王国，但他仍然未能排除历史背景的影响。借鉴其他批评，本文认为赛义德对《阿伊达》中东方元素的论点是对歌剧创作及其内容的相当精确的反映。本文的原因有两个方面：1）歌剧本身包含了象征西方理想化和东方想象力的元素； 2。 2）这是由于历史背景的局限性，导致东方对东方的必然解释。本文的第一部分遵循赛义德的论点和对歌剧的分析，因此着眼于创作及其历史背景。第二部分将重点关注歌剧本身是东方的西方理想化的要素。本文后面的部分将涉及一些反驳。本文将以一些总结性结论和对未来方向的启示。
Orientalism and the Background of Aida
In the aforementioned work of Said (1993) on Aida and Orientalism, he defined Orientalism as a tendency of the Western society to view the East as exotic, distant, antique, and more importantly, inferior to the West. This view largely justified the colonization of the East by deeming the East as ‘the Other’. This definition will be helpful for us along the way to understand the Orientalist elements in Aida and the creation of it, as will be discussed in the following paragraphs. Before presenting the main arguments, it is also necessary to revisit the historical background of Aida. Aida was created by Verdi and premiered in 1871. It was also the era of the Western conquering of the Eastern world, including Egypt. Aida was, as a fact of fact, commissioned by Khedivial Opera House in Cairo and was first put on a show there. Verdi was also assisted by Auguste Mariette, a French archeologist and Egyptologist (Said, 1993). And it was here that the story began.
Orientalism and the Background of Aida
In the aforementioned work of Said (1993) on Aida and Orientalism, he defined Orientalism as a tendency of the Western society to view the East as exotic, distant, antique, and more importantly, inferior to the West. This view largely justified the colonization of the East by deeming the East as ‘the Other’. This definition will be helpful for us along the way to understand the Orientalist elements in Aida and the creation of it, as will be discussed in the following paragraphs. Before presenting the main arguments, it is also necessary to revisit the historical background of Aida. Aida was created by Verdi and premiered in 1871. It was also the era of the Western conquering of the Eastern world, including Egypt. Aida was, as a fact of fact, commissioned by Khedivial Opera House in Cairo and was first put on a show there. Verdi was also assisted by Auguste Mariette, a French archeologist and Egyptologist (Said, 1993). And it was here that the story began.
东方主义与阿依达的背景
在萨伊德（Said，1993）关于艾达和东方主义的上述著作中，他将东方主义定义为西方社会倾向于将东方视为异国情调，遥远，古老，更重要的是次于西方的一种趋势。这种观点通过将东方视为“他者”，在很大程度上证明了东方的殖民统治。这个定义将有助于我们理解Aida中的东方主义元素及其创建，这将在以下段落中进行讨论。在提出主要论点之前，也有必要重新审视阿伊达的历史背景。阿依达（Aida）由威尔第（Verdi）创建并于1871年首映。这也是西方征服包括埃及在内的东方世界的时代。事实上，阿伊达（Aida）是由开罗（Kedivial）歌德比亚歌剧院（Khedivial Opera House）委托创作的，并首次在该剧院放映。威尔第还得到了法国考古学家和埃及学家奥古斯特·玛丽埃特（Auguste Mariette）的协助（Said，1993年）。故事就从这里开始。
Perception of the East: the Shaping Forces of History
Following the thread of the historical background, it is appropriate to discuss how Verdi was influenced by the history of conquering and expedition of Egypt, reflected in the creation process of Aida.
The revival of Ancient Egypt on stage is no more than an imperial reconstruction of Egypt, as argued by Said (1993). Aida therefore demonstrated Egyptology rather than Egypt, which are essentially two different concepts (Said, 1993). The former is a reconstruction of Ancient Egypt based on Western Perception, while the latter is an entity, an object for observation and exploration in the eyes of Westerners. Furthermore, the power asymmetry between the West and the East gave the West the dominance in the interpretation of Eastern culture in their works of art. And Aida was only one example. It is safe to say that most artists at this point were largely influenced by a Western interpretation of Egyptian culture, rather than how it is told and described in the eyes of its people. This historical context set the stage for further interpretation and manifestation of the East by Westerners, including Verdi. Thus, his creation of Aida was arguably restricted by his imagination of the East and the information he had access to about Egypt.
Perception of the East: the Shaping Forces of History
Following the thread of the historical background, it is appropriate to discuss how Verdi was influenced by the history of conquering and expedition of Egypt, reflected in the creation process of Aida.
The revival of Ancient Egypt on stage is no more than an imperial reconstruction of Egypt, as argued by Said (1993). Aida therefore demonstrated Egyptology rather than Egypt, which are essentially two different concepts (Said, 1993). The former is a reconstruction of Ancient Egypt based on Western Perception, while the latter is an entity, an object for observation and exploration in the eyes of Westerners. Furthermore, the power asymmetry between the West and the East gave the West the dominance in the interpretation of Eastern culture in their works of art. And Aida was only one example. It is safe to say that most artists at this point were largely influenced by a Western interpretation of Egyptian culture, rather than how it is told and described in the eyes of its people. This historical context set the stage for further interpretation and manifestation of the East by Westerners, including Verdi. Thus, his creation of Aida was arguably restricted by his imagination of the East and the information he had access to about Egypt.
东方的感知：历史的塑造力量
追随历史背景的脉络，有必要讨论威尔第是如何受到埃达（Aida）创作过程中所反映的埃及征服和远征历史的影响的。
赛义德（1993）认为，舞台上古埃及的复兴不过是对埃及的帝国重建。因此，阿伊达展示了埃及学而不是埃及学，这本质上是两个不同的概念（Said，1993）。前者是根据西方观念对古埃及的重建，而后者是一个实体，是西方人眼中观察和探索的对象。此外，西方和东方之间的权力不对称使西方在其艺术品中对东方文化的解释上占主导地位。而阿伊达只是一个例子。可以肯定地说，目前大多数艺术家很大程度上受西方对埃及文化的解释的影响，而不是在人们的眼中如何描述和描述埃及文化。这种历史背景为包括威尔第在内的西方人进一步解释和体现东方创造了条件。因此，他对阿伊达的创立可能受到他对东方的想象以及他所获得的有关埃及的信息的限制。
Imagination at Work: the Western Idealization in Aida
Now that the inevitability of Orientalist influence on the creation of Aida was discussed, bearing the conclusions of this discussion in mind will also help us understand how this influence manifested itself in the Opera. The music and design of the scene (especially in Act III) in collaboration with Mariette was one aspect that showed Orientalist elements. Said (1993, p.22) described how the music and the scene were created in a fashion that was both imaginative and cliche of the East.
Story-wise, Aida is more of a reflection of a Western idea and beliefs. The theme of individual pursuit of love, standing up against external forces (national interests, in this case), is almost Shakespearian. This not only to some degrees reflects a lack of understanding of the Eastern values concerning family and love, but also romanticized politics and power structures in the East. In a sense, one can argue that the East in Western art became a shelter for romanticist fantasies. The story ended with the ascent of the two with the angel of death. The eternal love between them was thus preserved and blessed. This arguably conveys a more Western religious idea about love, death and eternity. Granted, Verdi was not to blame for the inaccuracy in terms of cultural understanding, but his work reflects the degree of the Orientalist influence precisely because of the lack of this understanding. Since one’s imagination of the unknown is restricted by what he or she already perceives of the world one lives in. In conclusion, one can argue that Aida represented a romanticized idealization of Egypt, where the effort put into reviving the Old Kingdom was tainted by the restriction of the historical and cultural contexts, eventually falling victim to a Western gaze of the East.
Imagination at Work: the Western Idealization in Aida
Now that the inevitability of Orientalist influence on the creation of Aida was discussed, bearing the conclusions of this discussion in mind will also help us understand how this influence manifested itself in the Opera. The music and design of the scene (especially in Act III) in collaboration with Mariette was one aspect that showed Orientalist elements. Said (1993, p.22) described how the music and the scene were created in a fashion that was both imaginative and cliche of the East.
Story-wise, Aida is more of a reflection of a Western idea and beliefs. The theme of individual pursuit of love, standing up against external forces (national interests, in this case), is almost Shakespearian. This not only to some degrees reflects a lack of understanding of the Eastern values concerning family and love, but also romanticized politics and power structures in the East. In a sense, one can argue that the East in Western art became a shelter for romanticist fantasies. The story ended with the ascent of the two with the angel of death. The eternal love between them was thus preserved and blessed. This arguably conveys a more Western religious idea about love, death and eternity. Granted, Verdi was not to blame for the inaccuracy in terms of cultural understanding, but his work reflects the degree of the Orientalist influence precisely because of the lack of this understanding. Since one’s imagination of the unknown is restricted by what he or she already perceives of the world one lives in. In conclusion, one can argue that Aida represented a romanticized idealization of Egypt, where the effort put into reviving the Old Kingdom was tainted by the restriction of the historical and cultural contexts, eventually falling victim to a Western gaze of the East.
工作中的想象力：艾达的西方理想化
现在，已经讨论了东方主义影响艾达创作的必然性，牢记这一讨论的结论也将有助于我们理解这种影响在歌剧中的表现。与Mariette合作的现场音乐和设计（尤其是第三幕）是展现东方主义元素的一方面。赛义德（1993，p.22）描述了音乐和场景是如何以东方的想象力和陈词滥调的方式创作的。
从故事的角度来看，阿伊达更多地反映了西方的思想观念。与外部力量（本例中为国家利益）抗争的个人追求爱情的主题几乎是莎士比亚式的。这不仅在某种程度上反映了人们对东方关于家庭和爱情的价值观缺乏了解，而且反映了东方政治和权力结构的浪漫化。从某种意义上说，有人可以说西方艺术中的东方成为浪漫主义幻想的庇护所。故事以两个死亡天使的登场而告终。因此，他们之间永恒的爱得以保存和祝福。可以说，这传达了关于爱情，死亡和永恒的更西方的宗教观念。当然，威尔第不应该因为文化理解上的不准确性而受到指责，但是他的作品正是由于缺乏这种理解而反映出东方主义者的影响程度。由于一个人对未知世界的想象力受他或她已经对一个人所生活的世界的感知的限制。总而言之，有人可以说，艾达代表了埃及的浪漫理想化，而复兴旧王国的努力受到了埃及的污染。限制历史和文化背景，最终成为西方东方注视的受害者。
The Case Against Orientalism?
After discussing why Aida is an example of Orientalism, it helps to strengthen these arguments to examine a few counterarguments put forward by Bergeron (2002).
She argued that though Verdi’s knowledge about modern Egypt was enough to make Radames a convincing leading character. Moreover, she suggested that in the eye of Radames, Aida was way more than a colonial subject, thus the power relations between them presumably reflecting Orientalism is non-existent. She alway put forward the opinion that the issue concerning Aida was not that it represents a new order of Egypt, but it represents Verdi’s realism.
These arguments are problematic in multiple ways. Firstly, whether Verdi himself knew enough about Egypt was not the core of the problem with Orientalism, but rather how the image of Egypt was represented, portrayed, and reproduced through Egyptology and the opera itself. As argued above, since the creation itself made use of information about Egyptian culture based on a Western gaze on the East, the image of Egypt was more or less distorted. Examples include the cliches in music as argued by Said.
Though Bergeron further argued for ‘realism’ which was insisted by Verdi, she failed to realize, as Said pointed out, that Egypt in Aida was not Egypt but a reflection Egyptology at that time. The efforts of Verdi’s to advance his agenda of realism was more or less compromised by the noise carried in Egyptology, which was essentially built upon a Wester gaze on Egypt. Not to mention the modernization of Egypt did not necessarily help in preserving the country’s cultural legacy. Therefore, it is rather evident that Verdi could not have escaped from Orientalist elements despite how hard he tried to do so.
If investigated closely, the real issue revolving around Aida was more about how it was produced rather than what was demonstrated in the relationships between the characters.
The Case Against Orientalism?
After discussing why Aida is an example of Orientalism, it helps to strengthen these arguments to examine a few counterarguments put forward by Bergeron (2002).
She argued that though Verdi’s knowledge about modern Egypt was enough to make Radames a convincing leading character. Moreover, she suggested that in the eye of Radames, Aida was way more than a colonial subject, thus the power relations between them presumably reflecting Orientalism is non-existent. She alway put forward the opinion that the issue concerning Aida was not that it represents a new order of Egypt, but it represents Verdi’s realism.
These arguments are problematic in multiple ways. Firstly, whether Verdi himself knew enough about Egypt was not the core of the problem with Orientalism, but rather how the image of Egypt was represented, portrayed, and reproduced through Egyptology and the opera itself. As argued above, since the creation itself made use of information about Egyptian culture based on a Western gaze on the East, the image of Egypt was more or less distorted. Examples include the cliches in music as argued by Said.
Though Bergeron further argued for ‘realism’ which was insisted by Verdi, she failed to realize, as Said pointed out, that Egypt in Aida was not Egypt but a reflection Egyptology at that time. The efforts of Verdi’s to advance his agenda of realism was more or less compromised by the noise carried in Egyptology, which was essentially built upon a Wester gaze on Egypt. Not to mention the modernization of Egypt did not necessarily help in preserving the country’s cultural legacy. Therefore, it is rather evident that Verdi could not have escaped from Orientalist elements despite how hard he tried to do so.
If investigated closely, the real issue revolving around Aida was more about how it was produced rather than what was demonstrated in the relationships between the characters.
反对东方主义？
在讨论了阿伊达为什么是东方主义的典范之后，它有助于加强这些论点，以研究伯杰龙（Bergeron，2002）提出的一些反论点。
她认为，尽管威尔第对现代埃及的了解足以使Radames成为令人信服的主角。此外，她建议，在Radames眼中，Aida远不只是一个殖民主体，因此它们之间的权力关系可能不反映东方主义。她一直认为，与艾达有关的问题不在于它代表了埃及的新秩序，而是代表了威尔第的现实主义。
这些论点有多种问题。首先，威尔第本人是否对埃及足够了解不是东方主义问题的核心，而是埃及形象和歌剧本身如何被呈现，描绘和再现的方式。如上所述，由于创作本身利用了基于西方对东方的凝视的埃及文化信息，因此埃及的形象或多或少受到了扭曲。例子包括赛义德（Said）提出的音乐陈词滥调。
尽管伯杰隆进一步主张威尔第坚持的“现实主义”，但正如赛义德指出的那样，她未能意识到艾达的埃及不是埃及，而是当时的埃及学。威尔第为推进其现实主义议程所做的努力或多或少地受到了埃及学的影响，这基本上是建立在西方人对埃及的凝视之上的。更不用说埃及的现代化并不一定有助于保存该国的文化遗产。因此，很显然，威尔第尽管竭尽全力，仍无法摆脱东方主义元素。
如果仔细研究，围绕艾达的真正问题更多是关于它的生产方式，而不是角色之间的关系所展示的内容。
Conclusion
Conclusion
Aida is an excellent work of art in multiple ways, but it should also be placed in its historical background if one tries to analyze the ideas intentionally or unintentionally conveyed by the opera. This paper discussed how Aida was shaped by a historical context that gave birth to Orientalism, and thus projected Orientalist imagination of the East onto the characters as well as the story. Although there are. Hopefully, this analysis is able to raise awareness for more reflexivity in studying works of art focusing on portraying ‘the East’.
Bibliography
Bergeron, K. (2002). Verdi's Egyptian spectacle: On the colonial subject of Aida. Cambridge Opera Journal, 14(1-2), 149-159.
Said, E. W. (1993). The empire at work: Verdi’s Aida. Culture and Imperialism, 111-31.
结论
阿依达（Aida）是多种艺术作品，但如果人们试图分析歌剧有意或无意传达的观念，也应将其置于其历史背景中。 本文讨论了艾达（Aida）是如何由产生东方主义的历史背景塑造的，从而将东方对东方的想象投射到了人物和故事上。 虽然有。 希望这种分析能够提高人们在研究以东方为题材的艺术品研究中对反身性的认识。
参考书目
Bergeron，K。（2002）。 威尔第的埃及奇观：关于艾达的殖民主题。 剑桥歌剧杂志，14（1-2），149-159。
