Friday Performance Pick – 152

Verdi, Va’ pensiero

verdiGiuseppe Verdi’s opera Nabucco premiered in 1842 when Verdi was not yet 30 years old. It would establish Verdi’s fame as an opera composer at a time when his own life was filled with loss and despair.

The drama centers around King Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar) and the Babylonian Exile. The Hebrew people sing about the loss of Jerusalem in a choral lament known world-wide by its initial words: Va pensiero. With a text drawn in part from Psalm 137, the chorus addresses the fate of a nation and captures the spirit of the times in Italy, which had yet to become a nation.

But in a movement known as the Risorgimento, the political will of the people eventually transformed the loose collection of Italian city-states into the nation of Italy in 1871. Because of opposition to this idea, a secretive rallying cry arose: “Viva Verdi”—an acronym and code for Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re DItalia (Viva Victor Emmanuel King of Italy). Va’ pensiero quickly became an icon of Italian culture. It remains one.

In fact, Professor Carol tells the story in Discovering Music of how she needed an Italian tailor in Dallas to do a rush job for her. He said it would be impossible. Somehow she started talking about opera, and soon the two were enthusiastically singing Va’ pensiero in the tailor shop. He agreed to do the impossible and the skirt was altered on time. You see, knowledge of opera can be useful!

Va’ pensiero, sull’ali dorate;
va, ti posa sui clivi, sui colli,
ove olezzano tepide e molli
l’aure dolci del suolo natal!

Del Giordano le rive saluta,
di Sionne le torri atterrate…
O, mia patria, sì bella e perduta!
O, membranza, sì cara e fatal!

Arpa d’or dei fatidici vati,
perché muta dal salice pendi?
Le memorie nel petto raccendi,
ci favella del tempo che fu!

O simile di Sòlima ai fati
traggi un suono di crudo lamento,
o t’ispiri il Signore un concento
che ne infonda al patire virtù.

Go, thought, on wings of gold;
go settle upon the slopes and the hills,
where, soft and mild, the sweet airs
of our native land smell fragrant!

Greet the banks of the Jordan
and Zion’s toppled towers…
Oh, my country, so beautiful and lost!
Oh, remembrance, so dear and so fatal!

Golden harp of the prophetic seers,
why dost thou hang mute upon the willow?
Rekindle our bosom’s memories,
and speak to us of times gone by!

Either, akin to the fate of Jerusalem,
give forth a sound of crude lamentation,
or let the Lord inspire you a harmony of voices
which may instill virtue to suffering.

As we have done in previous years, the Friday Performance Picks will go on hiatus during the season of Advent and resume after Christmas. The daily posts of the Advent Calendar take precedence. If you have not signed up on our mailing list, I encourage you to do that in the side panel so that you will get the calendar post each day.

(The video has been updated from the original.)