Word: pensiero
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...rebellion against the Austrians, who were then ruling most of Italy, is indicative of the flaming patriotism that consumed the composer's early life and work. He was then 35 and had already written twelve operas, most of them bristling with propaganda. In Nabucco, for example, the "Va, pensiero" chorus was a call to arms that was later sung by Garibaldi's army. Italian opera audiences, quick to recognize the freedom slogans Verdi managed to slip past the Austrian censors, often erupted into flag-waving demonstrations. "Viva Verdi," scrawled on walls up and down the peninsula, became...
...another a phrase, and little by little the opera." The subject was a natural for mid-igth century Italy: the captivity of the Jews under King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, reminiscent to Italian audiences of their own fate under Austrian rule. The third act chorus of chained prisoners, "Va', pensiero" ("Go, thought, on wings of gold"), became an immediate hit all across Italy...
Some of the sources of Orsini's inspiration can be guessed at. The ogre seems borrowed from the Mouth of Hell leading to Pluto's cave, as illustrated in medieval manuscripts on Ovid. The curious words ringing the ogre's mouth-Lasciate Ogni Pensiero Voi Que Entrate (Abandon all thought, ye who enter)-refer to the cup of forgetfulness ancient Greeks thought was drunk before crossing the river Lethe. The dragon-fighting lions (probably an oblique reference to political feuds) derived from a sketch by Leonardo da Vinci. The elephant with castle was a symbol used...
Italians: To the St. Louis Il Pensiero he wrote congratulations on completion of an Italian-American community hall. Excerpt: "Our citizens of Italian extraction have rendered valuable contributions through the years in making America the nation it is today...
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