As an opera fan, I listen to a great many pieces of music that I don’t necessarily know all the history behind. One of my favorites is “Va, pensiero” by Verdi. The piece is also known as “Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves”, wherein the Jewish exiles of Babylon mourn the loss of their homeland and their temple. It wasn’t until I arrived here in Germany that I learned that this piece has a specific, although possibly apocryphal, history here. Supposedly, whenever Nabucco was performed in East Germany, audiences would be so moved by “Va, pensiero”, they would rise to their feet and join the chorus. At first the Politburo was pleased, thinking this a rallying cry around their homeland of Soviet East Germany. Once they realized that the homeland the people were singing of was really the West, Nabucco was quickly stricken from the list of acceptable operas to be performed in the East. I have searched for confirmation of this tale and only found vague and unspecified references to it, but the story is still a compelling example of modern folklore. True or not, it depicts acts of defiance of a people divided that serve to crystallize the zeitgeist of a moment in history.

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