STEVES: And now to Italy with a piece that evokes the struggle of the Italian-speaking people to create their own independent country. Remember before the 1870s, like Germany, Italy was just a bunch of little Italian-speaking states fighting bigger powers for their rightful place on the map. The dream was that the only Italian-blooded king, a man who ruled the country of Piedmont, Victor Emmanuel, would be the first king of a united Italy. The Risorgimento, as the movement for Italian unification was called, was dangerous. You could be arrested for just flying the Italian colors of green, white, and red.

Italy’s favorite music has long been opera with lofty melodies and so melodramatic. It’s a good fit for a land with such emotion where everything is “issimo,” you know? And for Italian patriots, the operas of Giuseppe Verdi stirred nationalist spirits like a bugle call on the battlefield. Now, when a Verdi opera came to town, people packed the house. The arias, which were like national anthems in disguise, inspired people to actually stand on their seats and sing with gusto, as if raising their voices in unison for Italian statehood. Even the composer’s name, Verdi, became a nationalistic cry for an Italian born king. V-E-R-D-I, Victor Emmanuel Re d’Italia, King of Italy.

This next piece was composed when Austria ruled much of the Italian land. It’s from the opera Nabucco. The plot is ancient. It’s from the Old Testament. The Jews were conquered and then exiled from their homeland by the Babylonians. The Italians could relate. In fact, the famous chorus of the Hebrew slaves, “Va, pensiero,” came to symbolize the Italian struggle. And with so much political symbolism, this opera just barely got by the censors.

By Giuseppe Verdi, here’s the stirring Overture from the opera Nabucco.

[music: Nabucco: Overture]