Va, pensiero

First stanza of Va, pensiero

Original text print in the opera libretto Nabucodonosor by Temistocle Solera, Milan 1842: "Third part, scene IV., Banks of the Euphrates , Hebrews in chains and forced to work"

The song Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate (“Fly, thought, on golden wings”, also known as the prisoner's choir or freedom choir) is a choral work from the third act of the opera Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi . The libretto is from Temistocle Solera , who took Psalm 137 as a model. The chorus of Hebrews trapped in Babylonia mourn the distant homeland and appeal to God for help. The choir is considered the most famous of all Verdi choirs.

Origin and reception

According to Verdi's own statements, while looking for a new opera material, he happened upon Nabucco's libretto on the Va, pensiero page and immediately decided to set this material to music. The forcefulness of the music, the patriotic connotation and the political closeness to the Risorgimento made the choir one of the most popular Verdi compositions and made a significant contribution to the success of the Nabucco premiere in March 1842.

In Germany, Nabucco in the era of National Socialism initially undesirable because of the subject of the history of Israel. In 1940 Julius Kapp created an "Aryanized" version in which he had Egyptians appear instead of the Israelites. In the chorus Va, pensiero he replaced the Jordan with the Nile and Zion with Memphis . This Nazi version Flieg, Gedanke, borne by longing with the text line Teure Heimat, When will I see you again is still widespread today in sound recordings and on the Internet.

In Italy, the separatist Lega Nord Va, uses pensiero instead of the national anthem , which threatens the melody to lose its national symbolic power.

text

shape

Solera's poem has an unusually demanding structure for an opera libretti. The four stanzas of four dreihebigen , anapaestic lines follow a complicated clinched rhyme scheme , the four stanza conclusions male , all other lines female rhyme:

a – b – b – c
d – a – d – c
e – f – f – g
e – h – h – g

Verdi's swinging melody in twelve-eighth time traces the rhythm and content of the original with artistic directness with sparingly used melisms and text repetitions.

text

Italian original	translation	Re-seal in original dimensions
Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate; va, ti posa sui clivi, sui colli, ove olezzano tepide e molli l'aure dolci del suolo natal! Del Giordano le rive saluta, di Sionne le torri atterrate… O mia patria sì bella e perduta! O membranza sì cara e fatal! Arpa d'or dei fatidici daddy, perché muta dal salice pendi? Le memorie nel petto raccendi, ci favella del tempo che fu! O simile di Solima ai fati traggi un suono di crudo lamento, o t'ispiri il Signore un concento che ne infonda al patire virtù.	Fly, thought, on golden wings, settle down on those slopes and hills, where the sweet smell of the home earth is soft and mild . Greet the banks of the Jordan, the crumbled towers of Zion ... O my country, you beautiful, lost one! O memory, you dear, fatal one! Golden harp of the heralds of fate, why do you hang silently on the willow tree? Re-kindle the memory in the heart, tell us about the days of yore! O, fitting the fate of Jerusalem, utter a painful lament! May the Lord give you a sound that gives you strength to suffer.	Pull, thought, on golden wings, pull and rest on corridors and hills! Let the longing inspire you to run to Zion's mountains and valleys! Greet the banks of the Jordan, the beautiful ones! May you penetrate to the temple of the Lord! Oh, the home we long for, greet, thought so sweet and full of agony! Golden harp of the divine seers, why do you hang so mute on the willow? Give hope and consolation to us in suffering and tell of glorious times. Sing the fate of the defeated Hebrews , too , harp, in plaintive tones. To be reconciled to the will of the Lord, give us hope to endure this suffering!

Adaptation

In 1997 the Italian pop musician Zucchero released a contemporary adaptation of "Va, pensiero" as a single. The song was ranked 17th in the Austrian and 19th in the Swiss charts .

literature

• Udo Bermbach : Oh, mia patria si bella e perduta: About power and powerlessness in Verdi's Nabucco. In: Opernsplitter: essays and essays. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2005, ISBN 978-3-8260-2931-8 , pp. 117–126

Web links

Commons : Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Roger Parker: Verdi and Milan , lecture on Verdi's relationship with Milan, with details on Nabucco , given at London's Gresham College on May 14, 2007 (text, audio, & video)

Remarks

1. ↑ According to contemporary Italian spelling is Va with apostrophe written, so dorate Va 'pensiero, sull'ali . However, the apostrophe is missing in the original libretto, and as a result, the spelling Va has established itself for this choir in literature as well .
2. ↑ in some editions notated in four-quarter time with triplets and sextoles
3. ↑ at Solera libere - "free"

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Udo Bermbach: Opera splinters . Würzburg 2005, pp. 125-126.
2. ↑ Tagesspiegel , January 31, 2001
3. ↑ University of Bremen , golyr.de , ingeb.org
4. ↑ Opera and Mythos using Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco as an example , Clio-online (without indication of the author for the rework)
5. ↑ hitparade.ch: Zucchero Sugar Fornaciari: Va, pensiero