Why Is Giuseppe Verdi a National Hero in Italy? Grief, 'Va, pensiero' and 300,000 Mourners

Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) is a national hero in Italy because his operas became the soundtrack of the country's birth. His chorus "Va, pensiero" from Nabucco was adopted as a symbol of the Risorgimento, the movement that unified Italy, and his very name became a political slogan: "Viva VERDI" was read as Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia, "Long live Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy". Some of that story is legend, as historians now point out. But when Verdi died in 1901, an estimated 300,000 people lined the streets of Milan, and that part is no myth.

An innkeeper's son from Le Roncole

Verdi was born on 9 or 10 October 1813 in Le Roncole, a hamlet near Busseto in the Po valley. At the time the area belonged to Napoleon's French Empire. The parish register says only that he was "born yesterday", so the exact date is uncertain, but Verdi always celebrated on the 9th. His father ran an inn and his mother was a spinner.

The boy's luck was a local merchant, Antonio Barezzi, a grocer and distiller who led the Busseto Philharmonic Society. Barezzi became his patron, took him into his home and later became his father-in-law.

Rejected by the Milan Conservatory

With Barezzi's support, Verdi went to Milan and applied to the Conservatory. He was turned down. Instead he studied privately with Vincenzo Lavigna, after earlier lessons in Busseto with Ferdinando Provesi. It is a comforting story for anyone who has ever been rejected: the boy the Conservatory did not want became the most famous Italian composer of his century.

Three graves in two years

In May 1836 Verdi married Barezzi's daughter, Margherita. They had two children. Then came a run of losses that would break most people. Their daughter Virginia died in August 1838 and their son Icilio in October 1839. Margherita herself died of encephalitis at the age of 26, while Verdi was writing a comic opera, Un giorno di regno.

His first opera, Oberto, had been staged at La Scala in 1839 with some success. The comic opera, written in mourning, was a flop that closed after a single performance. Verdi was in his late twenties, widowed, childless and publicly humiliated.

Nabucco and the chorus of the Hebrew slaves

According to Verdi's own autobiographical sketch of 1879, he had decided to give up composing. The impresario of La Scala, Bartolomeo Merelli, pressed a libretto on him, a text about the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar that another composer had rejected. Verdi said he threw it on the table at home, it fell open at a page that caught his eye, and he could not stop reading. Scholars think he romanticised this story, but it captures how he felt.

Nabucco premiered at La Scala on 9 March 1842 and was a colossal success; after the opening run, around 60 more performances were added before the year was out. Its best-known number is the "Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves", "Va, pensiero", in which the exiled Jews sing of a homeland they have lost.

Myth and reality in the Risorgimento

For a long time it was said that the audience, burning with patriotism against Austrian rule, demanded an encore of "Va, pensiero" in defiance of a ban. Recent research suggests the encore was actually for a different number, the hymn "Immenso Jehova", and that Verdi's image as the musical figurehead of the Risorgimento was partly built later.

The "Viva VERDI" slogan is real, though. It dates from 1859 in Naples, when patriots could shout a composer's name to mean the king of a united Italy. Verdi also served the new state directly: he was elected to the first Italian parliament in 1861 and appointed a senator in 1874, although he took little part in political life after the death of the statesman Cavour.

The galley years and the great trilogy

After Nabucco Verdi worked at a punishing pace, producing opera after opera for theatres across Italy. He later called this period his "years in the galleys", comparing himself to a convict chained to the oars.

The labour paid off in three masterpieces written in quick succession: Rigoletto (Venice, 1851), Il trovatore and La traviata (both 1853). Surprisingly, the premiere of La traviata, now one of the most performed operas in the world, was a failure.

In his private life, Verdi found a second partner in the soprano Giuseppina Strepponi. According to her, their relationship began in 1843; they lived together for years and married quietly in 1859 with only two witnesses. From 1851 Verdi made his home at Sant'Agata, a farm estate near Busseto; he would live there until his death.

Aida, the Requiem and an astonishing old age

Aida, set in ancient Egypt, was commissioned for the Khedivial Opera House and premiered in Cairo in 1871. Three years later Verdi conducted his Requiem in Milan in memory of the novelist Alessandro Manzoni, a hero of Italian literature.

Many thought he had retired. Then, working with the poet and composer Arrigo Boito, he produced two Shakespeare operas: Otello in 1887, and Falstaff, a comedy, at La Scala in 1893, when he was 79. The man whose second opera had been a comic disaster ended his career with one of the greatest comic operas ever written.

A home for old musicians, and a city in mourning

Verdi used his wealth to found the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti in Milan, a rest home for retired musicians. He suffered a stroke at the Grand Hotel in Milan and died on 27 January 1901, aged 87.

A month later his body was moved to the crypt of the Casa di Riposo. Arturo Toscanini conducted "Va, pensiero" with a chorus of 820 singers, and the crowd was estimated at 300,000. Whatever happened at the premiere of Nabucco, by then the chorus truly belonged to the nation.

Learn with Verdi: English phrases about setbacks and comebacks

Phrase	Meaning	Example
to hit rock bottom	to reach the worst point	After his second opera failed, Verdi hit rock bottom.
to throw in the towel	to give up	He almost threw in the towel in 1840.
against all odds	despite great difficulty	Against all odds, Nabucco was a triumph.
to strike a chord	to make people feel emotion or agreement	"Va, pensiero" struck a chord with Italians.
to go out on a high	to finish at a successful moment	With Falstaff, Verdi went out on a high.

Try this: Think of a time something went wrong for you and then improved. Write three English sentences about it using "hit rock bottom" and "against all odds".