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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.