Nabucco

Before starting work on Nabucodonosor, which was later to become his iconic Nabucco, Giuseppe Verdi was on the verge of abandoning music, discouraged by the op of his second opera. He then received a libretto by Temistocle Solera almost by chance, as it was destined for another composer. Verdi was very reluctant to start work on the text, but later he recalled that one night he "threw the manuscript on the table [...] the booklet opened. Unwillingly, my eyes were drawn to the page that was before them and onto these verses: Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate." So he started focusing on the task and "one day one verse, the next day another verse, a note and a phrase at a time, [...] little by little the opera was composed." The rest is history. Nabucodonosor was a triumph, the public at La Scala on the night of 9 March 1842 repaying him with an unprecedented response; they hailed all the numbers of the opera with warm ovations and paid special tribute to the chorus Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate, which in Italy has since become a sort of second national anthem. The reason for it being so great a success was that the opera possessed such force in itself, such simplicity and evenness of style that made it the perfect example of tragic opera.