devoutly to be wished, not for his own glory alone, but for the sake of his love, Aida, whose beauty he sings in a romance ("Celeste Aida”) of exquisite loveliness and exaltation.  Amneris, the daughter of the King of Egypt (Mariette gives him no name, and so avoids possible historical complications), enters.  She is in love with Radames, and eager to know what it is that has so illumined his visage with joy.  He tells her of his ambition, but hesitates when she asks him if no gentler dream had tenanted his heart.  Aida approaches, and the perturbation of her lover is observed by Amneris, who affects love for her slave (for such Aida is), welcomes her as a sister, and bids her tell the cause of her grief.  Aida is the daughter of Ethiopia’s king; but she would have the princess believe that her tears are caused by anxiety for Egypt’s safety.  The King appears with Ramfis and a royal retinue, and learns from a messenger that the Ethiopians have invaded Egypt and, under their king, Amonasro, are marching on Thebes.  The King announces that Isis has chosen Radames to be the leader of Egypt’s hosts.  Amneris places the royal banner in his eager hand, and to the sounds of a patriotic march he is led away to the temple of Ptah (the Egyptian Vulcan), there to receive his consecrated armor and arms.  “Return a victor!” shout the hosts, and Aida, carried away by her love, joins in the cry; but, left alone, she reproaches herself for impiousness in uttering words which imply a wish for the destruction of her country, her father, and her kinsmen. (Scena:  “Ritorna vincitor.”) Yet could she wish for the defeat and the death of the man she loves?  She prays the gods to pity her sufferings ("Numi, pieta").  Before a colossal figure of the god in the temple of Ptah, while the sacred fires rise upward from the tripods, and priestesses move through the figures of the sacred dance or chant a hymn to the Creator, Preserver, Giver, of Life and Light, the consecrated sword is placed in the hands of Radames.

It is in this scene that the local color is not confined to externals alone, but infuses the music as well.  Very skilfully Verdi makes use of two melodies which are saturated with the languorous spirit of the East.  The first is the invocation of Ptah, chanted by an invisible priestess to the accompaniment of a harp:—­

[Musical excerpt—­“Possente, possente Ftha, del mondo spirito animator ah! noi t’in vo chiamo.”]

The second is the melody of the sacred dance:—­

[Musical excerpt]

The tunes are said to be veritable Oriental strains which some antiquary (perhaps Mariette himself) put into the hands of Verdi.  The fact that their characteristic elements were nowhere else employed by the composer, though he had numerous opportunities for doing so, would seem to indicate that Verdi was chary about venturing far into the territory of musical nationalism.  Perhaps he felt that his powers were limited in this direction, or that he might better