But the second, 'King for a Day,' was practically hissed off the same stage the following year. He almost didn't write 'Nabucco.'His first opera, 'Oberto,' had been a mild success in 1839 at La Scala. And so began a longtime association of Verdi with the Italian unification movement that would eventually triumph.Verdi did not set out to be a hero. The music seemed to speak directly to dreams of Italian freedom and unity.An encore was demanded, even though the Austrian authorities prohibited all encores, fearing that they could be turned into demonstrations of some kind. There's a tremendous plaintiveness in it, but there's also hope.'For the people in Milan who first heard 'Va, pensiero,' that hope was especially pertinent.Their part of Italy was under Austrian rule, preventing a unified country, so they had no trouble identifying with the Hebrews in 'Nabucco.'At the opera's premiere, 'Va, pensiero' clearly touched a nerve — Verdi made sure it would, putting a little crescendo at the start of the words 'O mia patria' ('O my country'). 'We have all felt oppressed, have felt like an outcast in some way.

27, 1901, was laid to rest, huge crowds lined the funeral route. 'What was I to do?'Three months later, 'Nabucco' was finished.Many years and many operas later, long after the likes of 'La Traviata' and 'Aida' had greatly overshadowed Verdi's early triumph, Italians still treasured the chorus from 'Nabucco.'When Verdi, who died Jan. He went back to the impresario to return the libretto.'Merelli thrust it into my overcoat pocket, grabbed me by the shoulders and not only pushed me out of the room but locked the door in my face,' Verdi said. He thought about the libretto all night, but still resisted the next day. It had fallen open, and, without realizing it, I gazed at the page and read the line: 'Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate'.'The composer kept reading, one page after another. Fate had other plans.La Scala's impresario, Bartolomeo Merelli, bumped into Verdi one day and thrust a new libretto at him.'When I got home,' Verdi told his publisher years later, 'I threw the manuscript on the table with a violent gesture, and stood staring at it.

Nabucco Chorus Of The Hebrew Slaves