I've cackled through AIDA several times

But when it's done WELL (which is relatively rarely) it OUGHT to be a stunning drama that makes you pause to draw breath.  The libretto is about the folly of faked-up patriotism in time of war - something that ought to ring a few bells in Britain currently.  There is some magnificent music in the opera - I hope they're doing the ballet scenes too? - and it requires an outstanding cast of soloists.  Not unusually for Verdi, the pivotal character is an interfering bigot of a father.

The final scene - if it's achieved correctly - is one of the most magnificently morbid in the repertoire.

My advice - sign up at once, and get a decent seat...  tune-out to everything else, and absorb yourself entirely in it.  Don't let the spectacle distract you - it's a love-triangle, that's sent flying sideways by external events, and shows how states and empires care little or nothing for those they claim to defend, or even those who have defended them.

"It doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't add up to a hill of beans", as someone else once said.

ooooooooooooo depends on reviews then

Wonderful stuff.  Was listening to Vickers and Gorr in the same scene earlier this evening and that was pretty special too.

Ever get the feeling that Verdi should really have called the opera Amneris?

tried to try the dvd but think I more a 'comic' opera fan

Totally agree with what Reiner has posted. There is one particular production on DVD which I think stresses the intimate, personal aspects of the story over the monumental and it comes, surprisingly enough, from Zeffirelli. There's a cast of mostly very young singers, performing in the theatre in Busseto, near to Verdi’s birthplace, in a production mounted to mark his centenery in 2001:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Verdi-Aida-Zeffirelli-Paolo-Pecchioli/dp/B00005QJGB/ref=sr_1_2/203-4994897-1606365?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1185955939&sr=1-2

although it now seems to have been reissued with a new cover:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Verdi-Aida-Stefanelli/dp/B000G6BKKM/ref=sr_1_10/203-4994897-1606365?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1185955885&sr=1-10

The singers were coached, if I remember correctly, by the great Carlo Bergonzi, and it's a very special performance. Nothing will beat going to see a live production though, so, Lord B, do reconsider going!

I wondered about the new ENO production too. I'm also a bit undecided about Verdi in English - I did see Nabucco there, which I really enjoyed, but there was also a Trovatore which I didn't. As well as the awful production, hearing something in English which I've heard so many times in Italian was odd. The Aida production has already premiered at Houston and the reviews/ productions photos look quite promising:

http://www.schillerinstitute.org/educ/reviews/aida_hou.html

http://blogs.chron.com/aboutlastnight/2007/04/a_splashy_new_look_a_classic_s.html

Plus, there's an interview with Zandra Rhodes here:
http://www.houstongrandopera.org/otherdisplay.aspx?pageid=736

I'll have a look at the dates and perhaps plan a trip to the Coliseum!

I think the "kernel" of the AIDA story is so universal that it could credibly be played-out against the background of any civil war.  In fact I would go as far as saying that the setting was almost incidental to Verdi...  he's interested in the interaction between the doomed trio (and the two interfering fathers... what was that with interfering fathers in Verdi's output, anyhow?). But the key word here is "credibly" - simply relocating the action for the sake of a cheap trick isn't enough,  it has to be made into searing drama no matter what the setting... or it fails.

Two years ago I saw an awful "updating" reset to the Bosnian Civil War, but so poorly directed that the cast were just standing with nothing to do for hours on end.  (The opening scene had the chorus standing in stationary battlelines from the moment the curtain went up to "Ritorna vincitor!").

The Zeffirelli production came to Moscow last year, but I'm ashamed to say I grudged the $120 for back-balcony seats that were the cheapest (Stalls were "from $500", although apparently you got a glass of vino da tavolo and a pack of peanuts included for that).

Spookiest AIDA I've seen was Dmitry Bertmann's Helikon-Opera production... set in Egypt....  but Mubarak's Egypt.

Has anyone staged it "in Iraq" yet?   It's got to be coming if it's not been done already...