After Aida

After Aida
Written by	Julian Mitchell
Characters	Giuseppe Verdi Arrigo Boito Giulio Ricordi Franco Faccio Giuseppina Strepponi
Date premiered	1985
Place premiered	Taliesin Theatre Swansea, Wales
Original language	English
Subject	Biography of Giuseppe Verdi
Genre	Drama, musical, suspense, comedy
Setting	1879–1887; Italy

After Aida (original title: Verdi's Messiah) is a 1985 play-with-music by Julian Mitchell. It is about Giuseppe Verdi, and the pressure put upon him after his attempt to retire from composing. Continued insistent prodding from his friends eventually results in one of his greatest masterpieces, the opera Otello, which premiered in 1887.

Brian McMaster, managing director of the Welsh National Opera, commissioned the play, originally as a vehicle for the company's touring season to far-flung Welsh towns with smaller theatres than the average opera house. McMaster initially asked Julian Mitchell, author of the hit play-turned-film Another Country, to write about the backstage life of an opera company. Mitchell, although he had been an opera fan in his youth, knew little about this milieu when he began working on the project.

In the course of his extensive research, however, Mitchell happened on "Boito and Verdi", the final chapter in Frank Walker's biography The Man Verdi. This was a dramatic situation that immediately appealed to him – "a great artist going through a crisis, brought back to composition after a long silence, and finding himself a substitute prodigal son in the process" – and he took it as his subject matter.

To familiarize himself with backstage and off-stage opera life, Mitchell took singing lessons, attended opera rehearsals and auditions, and talked to conductors, singers, directors, répétiteurs, and designers. Mitchell said he found that the restrictions placed on the piece—small stage, single set, and only a few actors—actually became liberating, and helped him create a well-crafted and artistically sound play.

The two-act play spans the years from 1879 to 1887, and centers around the composer Verdi and his life and works after he has retired from composing and moved to his country estate.

Verdi's two friends, Giulio Ricordi the publisher and Franco Faccio the conductor, convinced that Verdi should write another opera, try to persuade him to come out of retirement and collaborate with the young librettist Arrigo Boito on a new work. One likely subject for a new opera is the play Othello, since Shakespeare is one of Verdi's favourite authors. Verdi's wife Giuseppina Strepponi, tired of seeing him moping about, also assists in the attempt to get Verdi composing again.

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