With new 'Aida' staging, Met tries out grandiose opera

In a new production of Verdi’s Aida by Michael Mayer, audiences are brought inside the towering pyramids and gilded tombs of ancient Egypt with intricate projections and dazzling animations. A beloved version of that scale helmed the Met Opera for more than three decades. " 

Michael Mayer, 'Aida' Director said "My dream is that I can give everyone enough that it will turn them on, maybe for the first time. So if I feel like someone's coming to the opera for the first time, and they're seeing this 'Aida', and they're like, 'Oh my God, that's like a Broadway show on crack, I can't wait to come back'. Then I feel like mission accomplished. And that only really works if the old school people are also feeling like they're getting the 'Aida' that they want." 

Mayer, in a recent interview of his production that premiered this month, adding that "there were audiences who wanted the big spectacle since Aida" has long epitomized opera at its most extravagant -- think sweeping sets, luxurious costumes and even real-live horses, an experience intended to transfix the audience with grandeur.