Nabucco is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian
libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on the biblical story and
the play by Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornu. Its first
performance took place on March 9, 1842 at the Teatro alla
Scala, Milan. The best-known number from this opera is Hebrews'
Chorus, "Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate" ("Fly, thought, on
golden wings"). The opera, Verdi’s third, is considered to be
the one that permanently established his reputation as a
composer. Nabucco follows the plight of the Jews as they are
assaulted and subsequently exiled from their homeland by the
Babylonian King Nabucco (in English, Nebuchadnezzar). Following
the critical and public failure of his second opera Un giorno di
regno, Giuseppe Verdi considered giving up opera. As a teacher,
he fared no better; he left his post earlier in disgust as
director of the Music School of Busseto after the Music
Conservatoire of Milan rejected him. At the same time, other
Italian contemporaries like Rossini and Donize