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How was Nabucco born and especially
I would say, how was Italy born?
Giuseppe Verdi had to face a great family drama
he lost his wife Margherita
then two of his children
a boy and a girl, his life is completely destroyed
Merelli commissioned him to do an opera
which was "Un giorno di regno", an opera buffa
which of course was performed at La Scala.
Later the opera is withdrawn
and Verdi decides
to stop working as a composer.
Otto Nikolai, who was asked
Nabucodonosor for the canival season in 1842
realizes while looking at the libretto
that it wasn't the right task for him.
So Merelli finds himself with this libretto in his hands
which would no longer be used
and on the spur of the moment says:
"Well, Giuseppe, why don't you compose
Nabucodonosor?"
"No I told you: I'm no longer a composer"
"Yes, but give it a try, take a look at the libretto
to get an idea"
"No, I said no"
"Yes, no, yes, no, yes, no..." and the Merelli
put the libretto in Verdi's pocket and eventually
the composer found himself with this libretto in his hands
And the libretto
you know how fate works in strange ways
opens to a page.
"It doesn't shout anymore.
You don't have to shout to bring your ideas forward.
You only have to think about them
and make sure that this thought
goes throughout Italy".
What does Verdi talk about
and what does he want to talk about?
About a people.
He speaks of a people who is deprived of its freedom.
and of the route
to identity of this people
till they regain their identity
and re-estabilish themselves as a free people.
At the same time I think that
speaking of a people
of identity
of homeland, of freedom
of human dignity
is just as important today as it was then.
In order to tell this story we have chosen
to use theatrical tools purified to the maximum.
For instance, the beginning of the show is performed
must be performed
in a sacred place.
The cemetery is a place
of memory in which the cult of the dead was cultivated.
In the libretto this place must be devasted
and destroyed, at the end of the first act
as a sign of outrage.
Gradually, the people get deported
dragged into a non-place
a desert.
The desert is both non-place and a place of prophecies
and appearances
as well as a location of the search for identity
it's the place of memory.
So you have all these possible values
in this apparently empty space
in which all the following acts are articulated.
All this is performed
with the figurative sensitivity of the twentieth century
starting from the costumes of the chorus
that refer to the years between the 1920s and the 1940s.
the people are not geographically specified
though they surely hail from central Europe.
The music is fresh.
Verdi's music is fresh
and the message is marvellously up to date.
He's saying to all Italian people
since 1800, since March 9, 1842, "Stay united!
Don't split up
Make sure that this thought flows through every region
a common thought
that runs from north to south.
So "Va' pensiero"
in my opinion
still unites Italy, not the opposite.
It's not something local or regional.
It's an Italian thing
it belongs to us all.