Today is the anniversary of the première performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, Nabucco. It is an Italian-language opera in four acts composed in 1841 by Giuseppe Verdi. It is the opera that is considered to have permanently established Verdi’s reputation as a composer. The opera follows the plight of the Jews as they are assaulted, conquered and subsequently exiled from their homeland by the Babylonian king Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar II). The historical events are used as background for a romantic and political plot.
the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves (known as Va, pensiero) from the third act of the opera Nabucco was used an anthem for Italian patriots, who were seeking to unify their country and free it from foreign control in the years up to 1861 (the chorus’s theme of exiles singing about their homeland, and its lines such as O mia patria, si bella e perduta / “O my country, so lovely and so lost” were thought to have resonated with many Italians).
Verdi’s operas remain among the most popular in the repertoire today. In addition to Nabucco, Aida, Rigoletto, La Traviata, Otello and Falstaff are produced regularly around the world.
Photograph of Giuseppe Verdi, circa 1872
Same here…
No car…no problem…
slow news day…
Verdi – Nabucco Va Pensiero – MET 2002 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS6L_9xUT5E
