Nabucco is an 1841 opera by Verdi about Nebuchadnezzar II, the Babylonian king who reigned from 634 to 562 BC. It was Verdi's third opera and his first major success. The opera takes place during Nebuchadnezzar's reign in Babylon, which was a great and splendid city known for landmarks like the Hanging Gardens and the famous Ishtar Gate, parts of which can still be seen today in Berlin's Pergamon Museum. The opera focuses on Nebuchadnezzar's temporary spell of insanity as described in the Bible, during which he believes he is an animal.

1. Nabucco is Verdi’s
1841 opera about the
Babylonian king
Nebuchadnezzar, who
reigned from 634 to
562 B.C. It was
Verdi’s 3rd
opera and
his first big success.
Part of the information
we have about this
famous historical king
comes from the bible,
in the Book of Daniel.
Nebuchadnezzar lived
in great splendor and
created the famous
Ishtar Gate. Babylon
was a great city and it
had several gates that
gave entrance to the
city. The Pergamon
Museum in Berlin has
the actual gate, not a
replica.

2. The Ishtar Gate was one of
the entrances to the city
and would be used for
triumphant victory marches
bringing back slaves and
loot from various military
campaigns.
Nebuchadnezzar sacked
Jerusalem and brought back
many Hebrew slaves, into
what is known by Jews as
the Babylonian Captivity.
The Hebrew slaves
would have been
marched through
this actual gate into
Bablyon, 2500
years ago. With
them was some
captured loot from
Solomon’s temple
in Jerusalem,
maybe including
the Ark of the
Covenant.

3. The gate is made of
beautiful blue
ceramic bricks and is
in perfect condition.
Babyon was also
famous as the site the
Hanging Gardens, one
of the 7 Wonders of
the ancient world.
These have not
survived.
Babylon was really the
“it” place to be back
then. It was the
supposed site of the
biblical Tower of Babel,
which artists have
imagined. That may
have been based on
the actual Ziggurat
which did exist and was
300 feet tall. Alexander
the Great destroyed it,
intending to build a
bigger one.

4. All of these splendors of
Babylon, like the ziggurat,
were lost on the Hebrew
slaves - who just wanted
to go home to Israel. The
137th
Psalm says:
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we
remembered Zion.
Upon the willows in the midst thereof we hanged up our harps.
For there they that led us captive asked of us words of song, and our
tormentors asked of us mirth: “Sing us one of the songs of Zion”
How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I remember thee not;
If I set not Jerusalem above my chiefest joy.
This is the setting of Verdi’s opera Nabucco. In the bible account (Book
of Daniel 4:33) Nebuchanezzar has a spell of temporary insanity and
eats grass like a cow. This spell of insanity is key in the opera’s plot.

5. Nebuchadnezzar was famous, from the bible, for some other things
that are not included in the opera. At a royal feast he was startled
to suddenly see a disembodied hand materialize and write a cryptic
four word message on the wall. Daniel interpreted the baffling
message (“Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin”) to the king and told him
that it signaled his imminent demise. That is where we get the
expression and bad meaning of “seeing the handwriting on the wall”
Rembrandt painting of this story

6. On a different
occasion king
Nebuchadnezzar had
a disturbing dream.
He demanded that
his many wise men
interpret it for him,
or be killed, but he
refused to tell them
the dream!
Daniel took on this
impossible challenge.
Daniel prayed for
divine guidance and
then he went to
sleep. He then had a
dream and in his
dream the king’s
dream was revealed
as well as its correct
interpretation.