Music: Glitz On The Nile

Move over, Zeffirelli. For a $10 million staging of Verdi's Aida this month, Egyptian-born Impresario Fawzi Mitwali rejected sets for the real thing: the Temple of Luxor on the site of ancient Thebes. Besides Tenor Placido Domingo, opening night featured the 525-member Arena di Verona Opera Company, 180 Egyptian soldiers and 200 extras tramping down the Avenue of the Sphinxes.

More than 4,000 of the glitterati paid up to $600 a ticket. But the echoing acoustics proved atrocious ("double Domingo," cracked one listener). Just 14,000 tickets were sold for the other nine performances (the tenor sang only the premiere), leaving Mitwali in debt. The extravaganza was staged over the initial objections of Muslim fundamentalists and Egyptian antiquities officials, who feared the vibrations and crowds might damage the monuments. Still, Domingo says he hopes to return some day to sing Saint-Saens' Samson et Dalila. Now that will put the ruins to the test.