December was Egyptian month for some of the G & T boys. We were given two very special opportunities. The first was to go and see an opera performed by the English National Opera. The opera was Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida.

The opera is set in Ancient Egypt, with characters such as Aida, the Princess of Ethiopia, but for the moment a slave of; Amneris, daughter of the Pharaoh, who loves; Radames, the captain of the guard. He loves Aida, and Aida loves him back (but neither of them really know it yet). Poor Amneris.

Originally written in Italian, we heard it in English (the English National Opera always performs their operas in English).

The story begins when Radames is informed that Egypt is to go to war with Ethiopia. He expresses his desire to be chosen as the commander of Egypt’s armies and his secret love for Aida.

Aida knows why the Ethiopians are invading. Her father, the King, wishes to take revenge on the Egyptians and rescue his daughter.

Radames does get chosen as the commander, and Egypt’s armies defeat the Ethiopians. After the defeat, there is an amazing victory scene containing many different acrobatic acts and songs. There is a bit where the battle is acted out. The Egyptians are represented by a well-dressed acrobat; whereas the Ethiopians are represented by a scruffy-looking person wearing lots of straw on their head (I’m not sure how flattering that is for Ethiopians).

Aida’s father has been captured, and he and Aida plot their escape. Radames is seen with them, and accused of treason. The priests sentence him to death - to be buried alive! Amneris tries to save him by giving him the chance to be her husband, but he turns her down. He says that he would prefer death! Poor Amneris (again).

Radames is lowered into his tomb and the tomb is sealed. He sees someone else in the tomb! It is Aida! They die in the tomb together, as Amneris stands above the tomb, praying that they have peaceful deaths.

It is a very spectacular opera, with extravagant costumes, sets and backgrounds. The Eye of Horus was incorporated into the designs of both the costumes and the sets: The guards, warriors and acrobats all have it on their chests and in the scene where Radames is tried, Amneris stands outside, divided from Radames and the court by bars – the bars are almost completely made up of a giant Eye of Horus.

The second opportunity was a visit to the new Tutankhamun exhibition at the O₂ Dome in Greenwich. The exhibition was mainly about the reign (albeit a short one) of “the boy king”, but was also about the pharaohs leading up to him, such as Akhenaten and Tuthmosis IV – “The Golden Age of the Pharaohs”. We were accompanied by Mr Clarke, the gifted and talented co-ordinator, and Mr Cowie, a history teacher at the school who has studied Egyptology.

The first couple of galleries show, for the most part, pieces of art and everyday items from the pharaohs that came before Tutankhamun. There was a statue of Tuthmosis and his mother, and a couple of small busts of Akhenaten’s wife Nefertiti, along with a couple of busts of their children. The statues of the children had elongated heads. Historians are not in agreement about why this is: it could be a familial trait, or an art style of the period. Some people have even gone so far to suggest that the Akhenaten family were a family of aliens…

In another gallery were statues of gods and other religious artefacts. There was a wooden statue of a winged serpent goddess, and a large ankh, the symbol of life. In the next room there was an impressive sarcophagus. It was the sarcophagus of Tuyu, the supposed great-grandmother of Tutankhamun. Also in the gallery were many articles from the tombs. There was a funeral mask of Tuyu and a “magical brick” topped off with a shabti (a small model that was enchanted to come alive at the dead king or queen’s bidding). The brick’s hieroglyphs stated that “If you come to pull my hair, I will not allow you to pull my hair”…an interesting curse.

Next we came to a gallery which contained statues and artefacts from the Amarna Heresy period (in which Akhenaten, perhaps Tutankhamun’s father, got rid of all the traditional gods, and replaced them with one god, the Aten, or sun-disk). At this point, Mr Clarke became very excited, because he is interested about this period. We saw a large head of Akhenaten, and a stone carving which shows Akhenaten and his family honouring the Aten. These representations of people are rather strange, because their heads are elongated, their bellies droop, and the men have feminine shaped bodies…

In the next few galleries we saw artefacts from Tutankhamun’s reign. There was a wooden manikin of him, presumably for holding clothes and jewellery. There were some statues of gods, such as Ptah, the creator, along with jewellery depicting the king. There was a fan (without the feathers), which pictured the king on a chariot followed by an ankh with legs, running after him with a smaller version of the fan it was depicted on!

There were many other statues, items of furniture and pieces of jewellery, all very beautiful and intricately made. A model of a Nile barge was particularly interesting. It was painted beautifully and all the little details could be made out.

The last few galleries were about the discovery of the tomb by Howard Carter, and speculation as to how the boy king died…

By Samuel Horsley