NEW YORK (AP) — Sonja Frisell’s production of Verdi’s “Aida” ends a 35-year run at the Metropolitan Opera on Thursday with its 262nd performance. The lavish staging features a Triumphal Scene with 272 people, four horses, 62 spears and 41 swords. The production is the second-most seen in the Met’s 140-year history behind Franco Zeffirelli’s 1981 version of Puccini’s “La Bohème,” whose total rises to about 550 by this season’s end. A new “Aida” by Tony Award-winner Michael Mayer is set to open in 2024-25. Frisell’s version premiered on Dec. 8, 1988, with James Levine conducting Leona Mitchell, Plácido Domingo and Fiorenza Cossotto.
