Starring Angel Blue and Piotr Beczała, Michael Mayer’s new staging of Verdi’s Egyptian classic favors monumentality at nearly every turn, but it struggles to come to fiery dramatic or musical life.

Michael Mayer directs Verdi’s classic as an archaeologist’s discovery, featuring the shining soprano Angel Blue.

The first indicator was the audience Tuesday night at the Metropolitan Opera, which welcomed the new year with the premiere of Michael Mayer’s new production of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Aida,” and greeted the production with an unceasing chorus of coughing that lent each act the ambiance of an overcrowded urgent care.

Someone at the Met should have been giving flu shots (before RFK Junior makes them illegal), because something is obviously going around the cast of the new AIDA. They should have handed out a scorecard to help the audience keep track of who-was-who.