What was going on in Italy when Verdi was composing Il Trovatore?
Modern Italy is a younger country than Canada. It was only in 1870 with the capture of Rome on September 20, 1870, that the long process of Italian unification known as the Risorgimento, or Resurgence, finally unified the Italian peninsula under Vittorio Emmanuele II, then King of Sardinia. In the mid-nineteenth century, Verdi’s rising popularity coincided with the Risorgimento. The success of Verdi’s opera Nabucco,in particular, made “Verdi” a household name. Many Italians heard in Verdi’s music a cry for Italian unification and independence. This was especially so in Milan, where Verdi lived, as it was then under Austrian occupation. The piece that became the rallying point of the Risorgimento was Va’ Pensiero, the chorus of the Hebrew Slaves longing for their homeland: Fly, thought, on wings of gold Go settle upon the slopes and hills Where the sweet airs of our Native soil smell soft and mild…
