Aida with elephants

Cafe Society
1

A friend recently asked me where he could see Aida with elephants, and I told him the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, at least at one time. But now I’ve started wondering if that’s one of those things everybody knows that isn’t really true. I’ve come across numerous people who say they remember seeing Aida with elephants at the Baths of Caracalla–Cecilia Bartoli, Anthony Tommasini, my own parents. But no one mentions a specific cast or date. I can’t find any pictures (surely there would be some), and the one video of Aida at the baths I could find (1992 with Aprile Millo) doesn’t have any. (On the other hand, I’ve found photos of Aidas with elephants in Alabama, Tennessee, and Oregon.)

Has anyone here actually seen Aida at the Baths of Caracalla, and if so did they have elephants? And if so, is it one of those things from the distant past, or do they still do it?

2

Here’s a critic’s review where he mentioned he once saw Aida at the Baths complete with elephants, but he doesn’t mention what year it was.

Frommer’s suggests that the enormous productions ended when the Baths were closed in the 1980s, and weren’t resumed when they reopened in the 90s.

3

Yeah, that’s the only kind of reference I’ve been able to find. They’re all so nonspecific that I can’t help wondering if it represents memory adding elephants in retrospect, on the assumption that they must have been there.

4

I didn’t know elephants could sing.

5

Unfortunately, there are often lots of people in Aida (in addition to elephants) who can’t sing.