I recently had the privilege (yes, I know it was a privilege) to attend the opera at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, sitting in a gilded box for the performance of Verdi’s Nabucco, a retelling the story of the destruction of the First Temple. The music, the voices, and the staging were overwhelming – in the best way. Beauty on a scale that feels almost impossible. And yet, it was created by human hands, human minds, human souls.

Earlier that day, while touring La Scala, my husband and I visited an exhibit about the first performance held there when the opera house was rebuilt after heavy damage during World War II. On May 11, 1946, Arturo Toscanini returned to Italy to conduct that historic reopening concert, having lived in exile in the United States since the 1930s, in protest of Italy’s fascist regime. 

For that evening, Toscanini chose a program entirely of Italian composers, including the “Va, pensiero” chorus from Verdi’s Nabucco. The piece, also known as the “Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves,” uses words inspired by Psalms 137 (“By the waters of Babylon”) to present the perspective of the exiled Israelites in Babylon, expressing their sorrow, nostalgia for their homeland, and their yearning for freedom. The night of that concert, the streets of Milan were closed to traffic, and loudspeakers out in public broadcast from the stage so that even those outside the opera house could share in the performance. Remembering that the people of Milan were only recently emerging from the travails of fascism, war,........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)