What Is Nabucco? Verdi's Opera, the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves and His Comeback

What the opera is about

The opera follows the Jews as they are conquered and exiled from their homeland by the Babylonian king Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar II). The synopsis sets the opera in 587 BC, in Jerusalem and Babylon. The title names the king, yet the chorus that became the work's best-known number is named for the Hebrew slaves. That pairing of conqueror and exiles is the frame for everything else in the story.

Solera's libretto is based on biblical books including 2 Kings, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Daniel, and on an 1836 play by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornu. Antonio Cortese's 1836 ballet adaptation of the play, given at La Scala, was a more important source for Solera than the play itself. The material therefore passed through several forms: scripture, a play, a ballet and finally an opera libretto. For an English learner, the useful verb here is 'be based on', which describes exactly this kind of chain.

Why Verdi nearly stopped composing

Verdi's first opera, Oberto, was a success, and that success led the impresario Bartolomeo Merelli of La Scala to offer Verdi a contract for three more works. This contract is the background to everything that follows. Without it there would be no reason for the manager of La Scala to be handing manuscripts to a composer. It also means that Verdi's later reluctance was not for lack of an opening.

His second opera, Un giorno di regno, failed in 1840. The source says the failure came during a period when two of his infant children and his young wife died, and that Verdi vowed never to compose again. The source gives no further detail about this period, so we should not add any. What it does establish is that the vow was made at a time of personal loss as well as professional failure.

The timeline is worth setting out plainly. The failure of Un giorno di regno came in 1840, and by the autumn of 1841, according to Verdi's account, the opera was complete. Between the vow and the finished score sits one commission, and the next section looks at how it reached him. The phrase 'vowed never to compose again' is also a handy English model for a strong, formal promise.

How the libretto reached Verdi

Merelli gave Verdi a copy of Solera's libretto, which had been rejected by the composer Otto Nicolai. The text that would become Nabucco was therefore not a fresh commission written for Verdi. It had already been turned down by another composer. Verdi said the libretto opened on the line 'Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate', which caught his eye.

Verdi initially refused to compose, returned the manuscript, but Merelli forced the papers back on him and he gradually wrote the music. The verbs in that sentence make a small language lesson: refused, returned, forced, wrote. Each one marks a step in a reluctant process. The source does not say how long each step took, so the pace of the work is something we cannot describe.

The opera was complete by the autumn of 1841, according to Verdi's account. The phrase 'according to' is a useful English tool for marking whose version of events you are reporting. When you write about a historical figure, it keeps your own voice separate from the account you are summarizing. It is a habit worth building early.

The premiere and its success

The opera was first performed at La Scala in Milan on 9 March 1842 under the original name Nabucodonosor. The opening performances were limited to eight because the season was ending, yet they were a colossal success. The word 'yet' carries the contrast: a short run, and still a huge response. The limit came from the calendar, not from the audience.

Set two facts side by side. In 1840 Un giorno di regno failed. In 1842 the opening performances of Nabucodonosor were a colossal success. The distance between those two outcomes explains why the source describes Nabucco as the opera that permanently established his reputation. It also explains Verdi's own statement that it was the opera with which his artistic career really begins.

From Milan to London and the Met

The opera was first given in London at Her Majesty's Theatre on 3 March 1846 under the name Nino, since staging biblical characters was not considered proper. The change of title is a reminder that one work can travel under different names. Nabucodonosor in Milan and Nino in London are the same opera in two presentations. Rules about what could be shown on stage shaped even the name on the poster.

The source's timeline then moves to New York, where the opera was first performed at the Astor Opera House in 1848. Nabucco has been on the Metropolitan Opera's roster since its first presentation there in the 1960/61 season. The present perfect, 'has been on the roster since', is the natural English pattern for a situation that began in the past and continues. You can reuse it for any long-running tradition.

When the Metropolitan Opera opened its 2001 season eleven days after the World Trade Center attack, the chorus sang 'Va, pensiero' in honor of the victims. That is one documented moment in which the chorus was sung for an occasion beyond the opera itself. The source states it briefly, and we keep to that statement without adding detail.

The sound of the opera and its famous chorus

The opera is scored for a large orchestra including two harps, four horns, a cimbasso, and an onstage banda. Those are the instruments the source lists, and they are enough to show that this was conceived on a large scale. The best-known number is the 'Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves', often given an encore today. 'Encore' is a handy word to borrow when you talk about performances in any language.

The chorus's first words, 'Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate', are the line Verdi said caught his eye when he looked at the libretto. The most famous moment of the music is therefore tied to the first thing Verdi said he noticed on the page. The chorus belongs to the exiles whose story the opera follows. Reading an English translation of this line, and putting the image of 'golden wings' into your own words, makes a short and rewarding exercise.

Try it yourself: a practice exercise

Here is an exercise built from the facts above. Write four or five English sentences summarizing how Nabucco came to be. Use at least three of these patterns: 'be based on', 'vow to', 'according to', 'be first performed' and 'has been ... since'. Use only facts from this article, and do not invent any quotation from Verdi or anyone else.

Here is a sample answer. It is my own model text, not a statement by Verdi: Nabucco is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi, and its libretto is based on biblical books and on a play. After his second opera failed in 1840, Verdi vowed never to compose again. According to his account, the score was complete by the autumn of 1841. The opera was first performed at La Scala on 9 March 1842.

A short commentary on the sample: 'vowed never to compose again' uses a verb of promise followed by a negative infinitive. 'According to his account' tells the reader whose version the date comes from. 'Was first performed' is a passive form, natural when the performers matter less than the event. If you add a fifth sentence, 'has been on the Metropolitan Opera's roster since the 1960/61 season' practices the present perfect.

Turning it into a study routine

For a record-keeping task, list the key dates of the opera's creation and premiere and check their order. The source gives you 1840 for the failure of Un giorno di regno, the autumn of 1841 for the finished score, 9 March 1842 for the premiere, and 3 March 1846 for London. Writing each date in a full English sentence, such as 'The opera was first given in London in 1846', practices both numbers and the passive voice.

The app 'Retriever and Language Study' lets users learn English, Spanish, Chinese, or Japanese through the lives and stories of historical figures. According to the app description, users choose a figure and a course is built with lessons where that figure speaks to them and gives quizzes. The description also says its conversation feature is AI-recreated and not the figure's real words. This article does not claim that any particular figure is included. As a suggestion, try choosing a person you admire and writing a few lines of English about their life, keeping any invented dialogue clearly labeled as your own.