Giuseppe Verdi

" ("Issues Relevant to U.S. Foreign Diplomacy: Unification of Italian States") Even with the downfall of Napoleon and redistribution of territory by Vienna, the French still strongly influenced the states of Italy. About 1815 the idea of unifying Italy began to spread under the congress of Vienna. This process of unification began referred to as Risorgimento. .
             The Italian Risorgimento had many figures who played an important role during this time period, one important figure is Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi. Giuseppe Verdi was a famous Italian composer who was the inspiration of Italian nationalism. He was born into a family of northern Italian rural innkeepers, and was proud of his humble origins. When King Victor Emanuel wanted to ennoble him, he replied, 'I am a peasant.' Verdi wanted his music to speak to the masses, not to the privileged elite. In 1839 he composed his first opera, Oberto, in Milan which had some success. The next piece, Un Giorno di Regno, did not have the same luck with success and was known as a failure. Shortly after he experienced unfortunate tragedies, not only losing his wife, but his two children as well. Facing these hardships Giuseppe Verdi had declared that he decided to give up composing. However, after a year had past, the director of La Scala, where he produced his first opera, convinced him into writing another successful opera, Nabucco in 1842. This piece became a sensation and a symbol to the Italian people. The opera was about the Babylonian captivity of the Jews which was interpreted as the struggle against Austrian rule in northern Italy. This piece, and his later composition, I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata (1843) became anthems of Italian freedom-fighters. .
             The opera that established Verdi's reputation as a composer, Nabucco, the Austrians censored the text of the chorus,"Immenso Jeovah". It was not censored due to dissident lyrics but the sensation the opera caused, which provoked riots in the streets.