Who needs elephants? Yuval Sharon’s Detroit Opera—home to the incredible shrinking Götterdämmerung (Twilight: Gods, 70 minutes), the 12-hour loop of three minutes from Le Nozze di Figaro (called Bliss, “by” Ragnar Kjartansson), and La Bohème performed back to front—lets loose with a no-frills Aida, Verdi’s spectacular of spectaculars. Jonathon Heyward, music director designate of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, presents his credentials. Angel Blue heads the cast as the enslaved Ethiopian princess, opposite Christine Goerke as Amneris, the Egyptian princess she serves. As Radames, the Egyptian general both women love, there’s Riccardo Massi, formerly a stunt man on screen productions like Gangs of New York and HBO’s Rome. But opera is Massi’s ticket now. “Nothing else gives me those chills—nothing brings me to tears,” he has said. “Only opera does.” —Matthew Gurewitsch