Giuseppe Verdi (Roncole nr Busseto 1813 – Milan 1901) is not only generally regarded as the most important and influential Italian composer of the 19th century, but also as a cultural emblem of the struggle for Italian independence.

Verdi started his operatic career in the shadow of Italian bel canto composers such as Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti, whose serious operas now and then addressed political subjects but generally gravitated more towards the psychology of individual characters. To a certain extent, this also applies to Verdi’s early operas, but even these could, in isolated choral numbers, express the frustration at Habsburg oppression felt among many northern Italians – witness the classic Va, pensiero chorus of the Hebrew slaves in Nabucco (1842), which until this day enjoys the status of unofficial national anthem of Italy. (The current national anthem, Fratelli d’Italia, on a poem by Goffredo Mameli, was set to music by Verdi’s contemporary Michele Novaro in 1847; it eclipsed Verdi’s own attempt, undertaken in 1848, when he wrote the music for Mameli’s Suona la tromba).

Partly thanks to the frequent occurrence of patriotic choruses in Verdi’s oeuvre, such as Patria oppressa in Macbeth (1847), Verdi gradually obtained the status of national bard of the Risorgimento. In the years running up to the coronation of Italy’s first king, Victor Emmanuel in 1861, the expression “Viva V.E.R.D.I.” became a coded battle cry implying “Viva Vittore Emanuele Re D’Italia”. This demonstrates to what extent Verdi’s cause merged together with the Italian national cause, a fact underlined by his enlistment as deputy in the first Italian parliament.

At the same time, Verdi’s commitment to the national cause has recently become a subject of heated debate. Particularly British scholars, such as John Rosselli and Roger Parker, have argued that Verdi was initially less than ardent as an advocate of Italian independence, and that the national significance of Va, pensiero was a post-hoc construct. American scholars such as Philip Gossett and George Martin have contradicted these views, citing private letters like the 1848 one stating that “there can be only one music gratifying to the ears of Italians in 1848: the music of the cannon!” After the foreign, probably allegorical settings of the Babylonian Captivity or medieval Scotland, Verdi went overtly national in La battaglia di Legnano, which premiered in 1849 during the short-lived Roman Republic, with Garibaldi and Mazzini in the audience. Thematizing a 12th-century Italian revolt against Frederick Barbarossa, it was zealously cheered in the revolutionary euphoria of 1849, but after the return of Habsburg rule could only be revived in a wholly altered, subdued form.

In the early 1850s, Verdi chose to set psychological dramas to music: Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata contain few references to contemporary politics. But the entanglement of political struggle and personal drama remained an important factor. Les vêpres siciliennes (1855) shows Sicilian resistance to French oppression in the 13th century; it premiered in 1855 in Paris and was reworked for the Italian productions, which took place after 1861. Un ballo in maschera (1859) was based on the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden, but its action was transplanted to the United States to placate the censors. Don Carlos (1867, derived from Schiller’s play) shows the horrors of Philip II’s oppressive reign, whereas Aida (1871), premiered in Cairo, addresses similar themes in an exotic context. The most direct reference to Italian unification can be found in the final version of Simone Boccanegra (1881 edition of 1857 original), in which the title-hero summons his fellow-Genoans to prioritize their Italian loyalties over urban ones.

Even if scholars have different views concerning Verdi’s engagement with and significance for the national cause in the 1840s, there is no denying his importance as a national hero and figurehead during the second half of the 19th century, or his acceptance of that status, as evinced also in his Messa da Requiem (1868) for Alessandro Manzoni. Verdi’s own death in 1901 occasioned nationwide mourning, despite his wish to have an austere funeral ceremony.