Word: pensiero
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...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...
| 1 |