Giuseppe Verdi Verdi and Giuseppina decided to adopt Carlo's great-niece Filomena Maria Verdi, then seven years old, as their own child. She was to marry in 1878 the son of Verdi's friend and lawyer Angelo Carrara and her family became eventually the heirs of Verdi's estate. "Aida" was commissioned by the Egyptian government for the opera house built by the Khedive Isma'il Pasha to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. The opera house actually opened with a production of "Rigoletto". The prose libretto in French by Camille du Locle, based on a scenario by the Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, was
Opening of the Kiel Canal Opening of the Kiel Canal Opening of the Kiel Canal (also known as Inauguration of the Kiel Canal by Kaiser Wilhelm II) is an 1895 British short black-and-white silent documentary news film directed and produced by Birt Acres. It was filmed between June 1895 and July 1895 and as the title suggests documents the opening of the Kiel Canal in Germany by Kaiser Wilhelm II on 20 June 1895. Unlike most of the films made by Birt Acres on this occasion, the video of this film survives and the original negative is held by the Science Museum (London). The film