Word: nebuchadnezzar
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...With this opera," said Giuseppe Verdi, "my artistic career has begun." He was speaking of Nabucco, the opera about Nebuchadnezzar that set him at the age of 28 in the top rank of operatic composers. Rarely performed now, even in Italy, Nabucco made only a few brief appearances on the Manhattan stage and then disappeared for nearly a century. Back last week as the curtain raiser for the Metropolitan Opera's 76th season, it proved to be an intriguing if occasionally turgid preview of genius still seeking a proper voice...
...Temistocle Solera, a minor 19th century poet), he found himself writing "one day a verse, the next day another; one time a note, another a phrase, and little by little the opera." The subject was a natural for mid-igth century Italy: the captivity of the Jews under King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, reminiscent to Italian audiences of their own fate under Austrian rule. The third act chorus of chained prisoners, "Va', pensiero" ("Go, thought, on wings of gold"), became an immediate hit all across Italy...
...Toynbee harks back to the first Diaspora in 586 B.C., when Emperor Nebuchadnezzar wiped out the Kingdom of Judah and initiated the spiritually fruitful period of the "Babylonian Captivity...