Piortr Beczala

This week’s Sunday Opera (7/12 3:00 p.m.) heads off to the Paris Opera for one of the world’s favorite operas, “Aida” by Giuseppe Verdi. With a libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, it was initially commissioned by the Khedivial Opera House in Cairo for an 1871 premiere. Quickly becoming an audience favorite, the opera has played around the world and has even played over 1,100 performances at the Metropolitan Opera since its debut in 1886.

Germanic paganism mixed with some Early Middle Age Christianity and a splash of Greek tragedy is the recipe for this week’s Sunday Opera (11/30 3:00 p.m.) and the Bayreuth Festival’s production of Richard Wagner’s “Lohengrin.”