What opera was first performed by Monte Carlo in 1925 and starred operatic tenor Robert Nagy in 1981?
Robert Nagy (tenor) Robert Nagy (March 3, 1929 – November 7, 2008) was an American operatic tenor who had a lengthy and fruitful association with the Metropolitan Opera that lasted for three decades. His association with the Met began when he won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 1956. He mostly portrayed comprimario roles at the Met where his most memorable early role was the Messenger in "Aida"; a role he sang 172 times for the company. He notably sang in the world premieres of two operas by Samuel Barber at the Met: "Vanessa" (1958) and "Antony and Cleopatra" (1966). He also sang in the company premieres of "Die Frau ohne Schatten" (1966), "Billy Budd" (1978) and "L'enfant et les sortilèges" (1981). Although Nagy specialized in supporting roles, he also portrayed several leading parts at the Met, among them Florestan in "Fidelio", Herodes in "Salome", and the Drum Major in "Wozzeck'. He remained on the Met roster through the end of the 1987–88 season, performing 1,187 performances with the Met during his thirty years with the company.
Aida Aida (] ) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in Egypt, it was commissioned by and first performed at Cairo's Khedivial Opera House on 24 December 1871; Giovanni Bottesini conducted after Verdi himself withdrew. Today the work holds a central place in the operatic canon, receiving performances every year around the world; at New York's Metropolitan Opera alone, "Aida" has been sung more than 1,100 times since 1886. Ghislanzoni's scheme follows a scenario often attributed to the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, but Verdi biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz argues that the source is actually Temistocle Solera.