Virginia Western Community College is expecting a big crowd at their screening at 12:55 p.m. this coming Saturday of a live performance of the Metropolitan Opera’s “Aida.” The Met’s production of Verdi’s depiction of a doomed romance between a captured Ethopian princess and an Egyptian commander is well-known to be spectacularly lavish.

Opera Roanoke artistic director and general manager Scott Williamson offers observations about “Aida” on his blog, Vissi d’arte:

For all its grandeur – the “triumphal scene” of Act II, replete with march, parading elephants and a chorus of over 200 singers and dancers is the most famous concerted scene in opera – Aida is an intimate relationship drama. And like many such operas, Aida involves a dramatically charged love-triangle.