0:00:04 > 0:00:06For centuries in Western culture,
0:00:06 > 0:00:09opera has been the greatest show on Earth.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13It's also become part of the soundtrack to our lives.
0:00:13 > 0:00:15Even if you don't like opera,
0:00:15 > 0:00:18there are some melodies you're just going to recognise.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22Maybe you've heard them in classic movies like this...
0:00:22 > 0:00:25MUSIC: The Marriage Of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
0:00:25 > 0:00:27..or like this.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29MUSIC: Ride of the Valkyries by Richard Wagner
0:00:32 > 0:00:37These operas may seem timeless now but each was written in a particular
0:00:37 > 0:00:41city at a particular moment, and they captured the deepest hopes
0:00:41 > 0:00:43and fears of the people living there then.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48I want to find out how opera and history go hand-in-hand.
0:00:50 > 0:00:53We've sort of forgotten this today, now that opera has become
0:00:53 > 0:00:57a specialised interest, but opera used to be centre stage,
0:00:57 > 0:01:01it used to be right at the heart of historical events.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04I've picked some of the best-loved operas to show you how.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10I'm going to visit the historic cities that shaped my operas,
0:01:10 > 0:01:14explore the colourful cast of characters who composed them,
0:01:14 > 0:01:16and show you how music can give us
0:01:16 > 0:01:19a peephole to look back into turbulent times,
0:01:19 > 0:01:22with the help of conductor Antonio Pappano.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27I'll be exploring the nuts and bolts of the most famous arias,
0:01:27 > 0:01:30duets and ensembles in the operatic repertoire.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33MUSIC: The Marriage Of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
0:01:40 > 0:01:43In this first programme, I'll explore four cities
0:01:43 > 0:01:47and four operas which came out of the cauldron of European politics
0:01:47 > 0:01:51between the 17th and 19th centuries.
0:01:51 > 0:01:53Venice, where modern opera began,
0:01:53 > 0:01:57where one of the steamiest and sexiest works ever was written.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00MUSIC: The Coronation Of Poppea by Claudio Monteverdi
0:02:04 > 0:02:06Vienna, where Mozart
0:02:06 > 0:02:11and Beethoven wrote revolutionary operas for an age of revolution.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14MUSIC: Fidelio by Ludwig van Beethoven
0:02:17 > 0:02:19And Milan, home to an opera house
0:02:19 > 0:02:24and an opera that helped to liberate a nation.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27MUSIC: Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi
0:02:38 > 0:02:41MUSIC: Nessun Dorma by Giacomo Puccini
0:02:49 > 0:02:52It's a song about football, isn't it?
0:02:52 > 0:02:56I remember Pavarotti singing it at the 1990 World Cup.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00But what the man is really singing is that even though
0:03:00 > 0:03:04a powerful princess has promised to have him killed in the morning,
0:03:04 > 0:03:08he is not going to die because he believes that the powerful
0:03:08 > 0:03:11princess will fall in love with him.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15So the song is really about emotion, it's about death,
0:03:15 > 0:03:19it's about love, it's about all the big themes of opera.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54Opera's trick of taking people on an emotional rollercoaster
0:03:54 > 0:03:58like this made it history's most popular form of entertainment.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00People were passionate about opera,
0:04:00 > 0:04:04like some people seem to be about football today.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06So how did that happen?
0:04:06 > 0:04:10What does Antonio Pappano of London's Royal Opera think?
0:04:10 > 0:04:15Sometimes a composer comes along who really captures
0:04:15 > 0:04:18the essence of a time and a place, would you agree?
0:04:18 > 0:04:22The great opera composers all,
0:04:22 > 0:04:27at one time in their creative lives,
0:04:27 > 0:04:29will seize...
0:04:29 > 0:04:31..a moment,
0:04:31 > 0:04:36will smell what is in the air politically,
0:04:36 > 0:04:39socially and somehow write...
0:04:41 > 0:04:46..a work of genius that reflects that moment in society.
0:04:46 > 0:04:52It was seizing something that was already either
0:04:52 > 0:04:54festering or blossoming.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01Opera really got going in Venice in the 17th century,
0:05:01 > 0:05:04with a work where singers express genuine
0:05:04 > 0:05:07human emotions on the stage for the first time.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10It could only have been written here.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14Venice was a rich, powerful if rather decadent republic,
0:05:14 > 0:05:17fiercely proud of its independence from Rome and the Church.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23Venice was about to enter a golden age of culture.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26It had become a haven for intellectuals.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30Some of them were libertines looking for free love,
0:05:30 > 0:05:33others were in search of free thinking instead.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38This meant that you could even - and this was really unusual
0:05:38 > 0:05:42for 17th century Italy - make fun of the Pope.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45So this was a free-thinking, freewheeling kind of a place
0:05:45 > 0:05:49and the arts flourished here, particularly opera.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52This place was just packed with composers.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58Opera began as a musical intermission between other
0:05:58 > 0:06:00types of entertainment at court -
0:06:00 > 0:06:04basically, a way for nobles to impress their guests.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08These proto-operas seem a bit bonkers now.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12Take La Pellegrina in 1589, where audiences were treated
0:06:12 > 0:06:17to heavenly sunbeams, gods and goddesses and dragon-slaying.
0:06:19 > 0:06:24By 1600, these musical bits had developed into opera.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27The new art form took off, especially in Venice.
0:06:27 > 0:06:32The first ever commercial opera house opened here in 1617,
0:06:32 > 0:06:33and more followed.
0:06:33 > 0:06:38Nobles leased boxes, everyone else went in the gallery or stalls.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42Venice went mad for opera.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46The noble families who ran the city had very often risen
0:06:46 > 0:06:50up from the ranks of the merchants a few generations back.
0:06:50 > 0:06:52So you could say that being entrepreneurial
0:06:52 > 0:06:57was in their blood and they saw an opportunity to make money.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00They invented opera as mass entertainment,
0:07:00 > 0:07:03with things like publicity campaigns,
0:07:03 > 0:07:09and season tickets and hits and of course flops, too.
0:07:09 > 0:07:11And this could only have happened here in Venice.
0:07:11 > 0:07:17It was this city that turned what had been a rarefied artform
0:07:17 > 0:07:20into entertainment for a capitalist society.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26The stage was set for Claudio Monteverdi,
0:07:26 > 0:07:28who moved to Venice in 1613.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31Monteverdi had been a court composer,
0:07:31 > 0:07:34a glorified servant to the Duke of Mantua.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38In 1607, he composed a full-length opera,
0:07:38 > 0:07:40the oldest opera that is still being performed.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52This was based, like those musical intermissions,
0:07:52 > 0:07:54on a mythological tale.
0:07:54 > 0:07:58Here it is the story of Orpheus and his unhappy trip to the underworld.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07But Monteverdi got frustrated
0:08:07 > 0:08:10composing music for mythological characters.
0:08:10 > 0:08:15What he wanted to do with his music was to move the passions,
0:08:15 > 0:08:18to express human emotions,
0:08:18 > 0:08:21and he couldn't really do this in the music that these princes wanted
0:08:21 > 0:08:25about gods or mythical creatures or dragons.
0:08:25 > 0:08:31Monteverdi once said, "How can I imitate the speech of winds?
0:08:31 > 0:08:34"Everybody knows that winds don't really talk."
0:08:36 > 0:08:41And so in 1643 came the premiere of Monteverdi's new opera,
0:08:41 > 0:08:43The Coronation Of Poppea.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06For the first time ever in opera, we meet real people
0:09:06 > 0:09:08with real passions,
0:09:08 > 0:09:11including sexual passions.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14After all, the opera was first performed during Venice's
0:09:14 > 0:09:18annual carnival season when the city filled up with tourists
0:09:18 > 0:09:20looking for decadent thrills.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24And Monteverdi's main character was an especially bad boy.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28The plot is based on a true story,
0:09:28 > 0:09:32the story of the Emperor Nero in the 1st century AD.
0:09:32 > 0:09:37This is Nero famous for tyranny and for fiddling while Rome burns.
0:09:37 > 0:09:42Specifically it is about the powerful adulterous passion
0:09:42 > 0:09:45that Nero feels for his mistress, Poppea.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49It's so powerful that it eliminates all obstacles
0:09:49 > 0:09:54including Nero's wife and the philosopher Seneca.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58Now, Venice was a pretty kinky place, but The Coronation Of Poppea
0:09:58 > 0:10:02takes things into a whole new level of kinkiness.
0:10:02 > 0:10:07It is completely amoral - at the end, evil triumphs.
0:10:07 > 0:10:08But the music is ravishing.
0:10:09 > 0:10:13Seneca is ordered to commit suicide
0:10:13 > 0:10:15because he disapproves of Nero's passion for Poppea.
0:10:17 > 0:10:19And Seneca does.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23As you will see, Monteverdi's music still shocks.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27One of the gems of this opera is the duet between Nero
0:10:27 > 0:10:30and his friend, the poet Lucano.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34It starts with the line, "Now that Seneca is dead."
0:10:34 > 0:10:41# Or che Seneca e morto... #
0:10:41 > 0:10:45And sets up this situation, "What shall we do now he is dead?"
0:10:45 > 0:10:46And the answer is...
0:10:46 > 0:10:49# Cantiam, cantiam Lucano... #
0:10:49 > 0:10:51Cantiam - let's sing.
0:11:00 > 0:11:04And in an increasingly drunken frenzy, losing all control,
0:11:04 > 0:11:09they sing love songs, invent love songs to Poppea.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23Speaking about the different parts of her anatomy.
0:11:23 > 0:11:25If the song went on a little bit further,
0:11:25 > 0:11:28God knows where they would have arrived.
0:11:28 > 0:11:30But it's bawdy enough as it is and it becomes
0:11:30 > 0:11:33almost like a singing competition between the two of them.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51But it is also very, very sensual, sexy even,
0:11:51 > 0:11:55and incredibly erotic and daring for the time.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15It's an extraordinary thing - this is how opera began.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21You may have noticed that Nero there was played by a female soprano.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24Originally the role was sung by a castrato.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28Audiences loved the otherworldly voices of these male singers
0:12:28 > 0:12:31who had been, well, castrated.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35That wasn't the only thing that would have grabbed their attention.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38The exciting and innovative thing about it is that it featured
0:12:38 > 0:12:42real people from history, people who had once been alive,
0:12:42 > 0:12:44albeit a long time ago.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47You might not personally particularly identify with
0:12:47 > 0:12:51dead Romans, but at the time this was a huge development.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53People watching it felt they could share
0:12:53 > 0:12:57the emotions of the characters that they saw on stage.
0:12:57 > 0:12:58For the first time,
0:12:58 > 0:13:02opera was tapping in to contemporary politics and attitudes.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08The opera's libretto - that's the story and the words -
0:13:08 > 0:13:11were written by Francesco Busenello,
0:13:11 > 0:13:15a member of something called the Accademia degli Incogniti -
0:13:15 > 0:13:18the Academy of the Unknowns.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22This mysterious group of Venetian intellectuals were concerned
0:13:22 > 0:13:26with virtue, power, politics.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30What is that, Vincenzo, is it a sort of secret society?
0:13:30 > 0:13:33The members of the Accademia degli Incogniti
0:13:33 > 0:13:37liked to act from behind the scenes,
0:13:37 > 0:13:43not overtly, and to influence with their works
0:13:43 > 0:13:50and also with opera, the politics of the republic,
0:13:50 > 0:13:54have an influence on the audience also of opera.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58Why do you think that Busenello chose this particular story?
0:13:58 > 0:14:01It's a very strange and dark story, isn't it?
0:14:01 > 0:14:05They chose it in order to demonstrate,
0:14:05 > 0:14:10to underline the corruption and decadence of the Roman Empire,
0:14:10 > 0:14:12because Venice was a republic
0:14:12 > 0:14:17and they wanted to show that the Republic of Venice was now
0:14:17 > 0:14:22the great heir to the greatness of Roma in antiquity.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26The message is, Rome is bad and an empire,
0:14:26 > 0:14:28and Venice is good and a republic.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32Yes, and the greatness of Roma is in the past
0:14:32 > 0:14:34and the greatness of Venice is in the present times.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40Venice was a male-dominated society,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43and the Incogniti were also worried about women.
0:14:43 > 0:14:48Their sexuality could be a dangerous distraction for patriotic citizens,
0:14:48 > 0:14:52and Poppea herself is a shameless seductress.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55This is a little book showing all the different people
0:14:55 > 0:14:58who live in Venice.
0:14:58 > 0:15:03And here is my favourite - this lady is the Venetian courtesan.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06At first you might be a bit disappointed, you might think,
0:15:06 > 0:15:09"There's nothing hot about her."
0:15:09 > 0:15:13But the point was their wit and their intelligence.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16But then again, if I lift this flap, you will see
0:15:16 > 0:15:18what was really for sale.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21Yes, it was sex.
0:15:21 > 0:15:25Underneath, she was all about greed and self-interest.
0:15:25 > 0:15:26In fact, just like Poppea.
0:15:38 > 0:15:40In this fascinating love duet,
0:15:40 > 0:15:44or shall I call it erotic consecration,
0:15:44 > 0:15:45they possess each other.
0:15:58 > 0:16:03And the words are intertwining as they are sensual
0:16:03 > 0:16:05and the music does exactly the same thing.
0:16:05 > 0:16:06Sometimes...
0:16:08 > 0:16:12Sometimes being so close, it almost hurts.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27This is the power of the sensuality of these two characters.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40A fitting finale to what I think is the opera of all operas.
0:16:45 > 0:16:52This is the door that opens to all the great duets,
0:16:52 > 0:16:54love duets that were to follow.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59To make this passion believable, Monteverdi needed singers
0:16:59 > 0:17:03who couldn't just sing but also act, make it dramatic.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07A trailblazer for today's opera stars like Danielle De Niese
0:17:07 > 0:17:09sang in the original production.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13Dani, we're looking at a picture of one of your predecessors here.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16This is the famous soprano, Anna Renzi.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20Anna Renzi. She was rather exalted at the time that she was bringing
0:17:20 > 0:17:24these roles to life and Monteverdi was just bringing opera to life.
0:17:24 > 0:17:26If we were to describe in a nutshell what
0:17:26 > 0:17:29she could do that others couldn't do at the time, she could act.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31Do you get any tips from her?
0:17:31 > 0:17:32Absolutely.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34Poppea is one that everybody thinks is the bad one,
0:17:34 > 0:17:36the bad girl, the bad girl who wins.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39That's why we go, we go to see the bad girl.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43But bad people still fall in love, like Poppea with Nero,
0:17:43 > 0:17:46so in her mind, she is doing everything right.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49Is there some little phrase, Dani, that you can use to show me
0:17:49 > 0:17:51the difference between just performing it straight
0:17:51 > 0:17:53and then performing it like an actor?
0:17:53 > 0:17:57Well, if I wanted to be a quite cold Poppea
0:17:57 > 0:18:04and not imbue any sense of adoring love
0:18:04 > 0:18:09or synchronicity really, I would sing it like this.
0:18:09 > 0:18:10Ready?
0:18:10 > 0:18:12SHE VOCALISES SOFTLY
0:18:14 > 0:18:17If I wanted to sort of turn up the heat though,
0:18:17 > 0:18:20I could pull you into me and we could sing it like this.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23- Hold my hands.- OK.- OK.
0:18:23 > 0:18:25THEY VOCALISE
0:18:32 > 0:18:35Oh, that was sexy.
0:18:35 > 0:18:42The great goal theatrically is when you have reeled the public in
0:18:42 > 0:18:45so well, it is like the snake has wrapped around them
0:18:45 > 0:18:49and they themselves don't know what they have gotten into,
0:18:49 > 0:18:53much like Poppea doesn't quite realise in that moment.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59Frustratingly, we don't know how the opera was staged
0:18:59 > 0:19:01or how it went down with the audience.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06This is the only bit of evidence for the first
0:19:06 > 0:19:08performance of The Coronation Of Poppea.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12It is a diddy little book called the scenario -
0:19:12 > 0:19:15we call it the programme - and it was available to the audience
0:19:15 > 0:19:18to tell them what was going to happen.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21It reveals that at the end of the plot, all of the enemies
0:19:21 > 0:19:26of Poppea and Nero have died and that they get together.
0:19:26 > 0:19:27Aww.
0:19:27 > 0:19:32But the Venetian audience would know what happened next in real history
0:19:32 > 0:19:36which is that Poppea got pregnant with Nero's child.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40He then kicked her to death before killing himself.
0:19:40 > 0:19:42Hmmm.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46But Monteverdi and Busenello had created a new form of opera
0:19:46 > 0:19:50that appealed not only to people's heads but also to their hearts.
0:19:50 > 0:19:55And this is something that would reverberate for centuries to come...
0:19:57 > 0:20:00MUSIC: The Marriage Of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
0:20:00 > 0:20:05..especially here in Vienna, a century later.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08After Monteverdi, opera, particularly Italian opera,
0:20:08 > 0:20:11began to catch on all across Europe.
0:20:11 > 0:20:14The people who paid for it were largely aristocrats
0:20:14 > 0:20:19and the plots of operas by and large supported the social status quo.
0:20:19 > 0:20:25But then, in 1786, a brilliant and subversive opera was written here.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29For the first time, it gave a voice to ordinary working people.
0:20:30 > 0:20:32In lots of ways,
0:20:32 > 0:20:36operas were the 18th-century equivalent of blockbuster movies.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39Practically every European city had its opera house,
0:20:39 > 0:20:43positioned, like this one is, right in the centre of town,
0:20:43 > 0:20:45right at the heart of society.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48But in opera terms, Vienna was special.
0:20:48 > 0:20:50This was Hollywood.
0:20:50 > 0:20:52It was a dream factory.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00Vienna's opera scene was dominated by Italian composers
0:21:00 > 0:21:02like Antonio Salieri.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05He was the top musician in town.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09Home-grown Austrian composers looked at their Italian rivals with envy.
0:21:18 > 0:21:23So it's no surprise that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart couldn't stay away.
0:21:23 > 0:21:27He moved to Vienna in 1781 when he was 25.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31And, of course, he is still popular here today.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35Here in Vienna, Mozart would write his rebellious masterpiece
0:21:35 > 0:21:36The Marriage Of Figaro.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40But to understand the impact the opera made,
0:21:40 > 0:21:42we need to understand Vienna itself.
0:21:42 > 0:21:44Time for cake.
0:21:45 > 0:21:50Now, no trip to Vienna is complete without a bit of its famous
0:21:50 > 0:21:52and fabulous cake.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55My cake here is also a history lesson.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59The bits in yellow on the map show the extent of the Habsburg Empire
0:21:59 > 0:22:01as Mozart knew it.
0:22:01 > 0:22:06And right in the middle is where we are, the imperial
0:22:06 > 0:22:08capital city of Vienna.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14Inside my cake I've got a vertical slice
0:22:14 > 0:22:17through imperial Viennese society.
0:22:17 > 0:22:22That layer of white icing at the top, that's the nobility.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26There aren't many of those, just 3% of the population of 250,000.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29The next layer down, the red layer,
0:22:29 > 0:22:33these people are the merchants, the manufacturers and the bankers.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36They will end up as the powerful middle class.
0:22:36 > 0:22:40And beneath them, well, we've got everybody else, the peasants
0:22:40 > 0:22:42and the workers.
0:22:42 > 0:22:43But this rigid,
0:22:43 > 0:22:47almost feudal social order was beginning to break down.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50To understand how, we will need to take a look underground.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04This crypt is the final resting place
0:23:04 > 0:23:06for the Empire's ruling family.
0:23:11 > 0:23:17There are 148 Habsburgs in here, including 17 empresses.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30This fantastic sarcophagus is the final resting place
0:23:30 > 0:23:32of Maria Theresa,
0:23:32 > 0:23:39who ruled the Holy Roman Empire for 40 years from 1740 to 1780.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42She was the head of the Habsburg Dynasty.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46Maria Theresa's best-known child was Marie Antoinette,
0:23:46 > 0:23:51the daughter she married into the French royal family.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55But among Maria Theresa's other children was her son Joseph
0:23:55 > 0:23:59who ruled after her as Emperor Joseph II, and this
0:23:59 > 0:24:05is his casket, placed at his request right in front of his mother's.
0:24:05 > 0:24:07It's utterly simple, isn't it?
0:24:07 > 0:24:09What a contrast.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14Joseph II was an enlightened despot.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17He tried to head off revolution by conceding some of his power
0:24:17 > 0:24:21to his people. He reduced the dominance of his nobility
0:24:21 > 0:24:26and introduced liberal reforms, including better education.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30And the students here at the University of Vienna still love him.
0:24:30 > 0:24:36But in 1780s Vienna, composers still relied on the Emperor's goodwill.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39Fortunately, Joseph was a Mozart fan.
0:24:39 > 0:24:41And, as a relatively liberal chap,
0:24:41 > 0:24:44he allowed Mozart to tell quite a controversial story.
0:24:49 > 0:24:54The opera The Marriage Of Figaro is based on a revolutionary play
0:24:54 > 0:24:56by a Frenchman, Pierre de Beaumarchais.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00The play got banned in France
0:25:00 > 0:25:03because its servant characters are just so disrespectful.
0:25:05 > 0:25:09And Mozart himself, he'd been fired as court composer
0:25:09 > 0:25:14to the Archbishop of Salzburg with, as he put it, "a kick in the arse".
0:25:14 > 0:25:18You can see why this play about disobedient servants appealed.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23Mozart once wrote a letter saying this,
0:25:23 > 0:25:28"I don't need a personage of rank to tell me right and wrong.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32"I may not be a count but I probably have in me
0:25:32 > 0:25:36"more honour than many a count does.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39"It is the heart that ennobles a man."
0:25:41 > 0:25:46Now this is very similar to a speech that Figaro makes in the play.
0:25:46 > 0:25:50Emperor Joseph allowed Mozart and his librettist
0:25:50 > 0:25:53to adapt the play for the Imperial Opera House,
0:25:53 > 0:25:57but only if they took out the overtly political bits.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00What they came up with, though, was still shockingly radical.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11The Countess is the lady of the house.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15She is graceful, she is dignified, she is a mature woman
0:26:15 > 0:26:21and her tragedy is that she still loves her philandering husband...
0:26:21 > 0:26:23..the Count.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26He's got a bit of a temper on him, mainly because he is bored
0:26:26 > 0:26:28and unhappy.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31He no longer has the legal right to sleep
0:26:31 > 0:26:34with his young female tenants before they get married
0:26:34 > 0:26:38but that doesn't stop him letching after his servants.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44Especially pretty, witty Susanna, chambermaid
0:26:44 > 0:26:47and confidante to the Countess.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50She is brilliant, Susanna, she is clever, she is funny
0:26:50 > 0:26:54and she is really cross with the nasty old, gropy old Count.
0:26:54 > 0:26:59That is because she is in love with the man she is about to marry...
0:27:01 > 0:27:03..Figaro, the Count's valet.
0:27:03 > 0:27:08He is a cheeky chappy, a bit of an anarchist and very angry when he
0:27:08 > 0:27:13discovers that his master the Count has been after his future wife.
0:27:15 > 0:27:16The stage is set.
0:27:33 > 0:27:37In Figaro's act one aria, he sings directly to the Count.
0:27:45 > 0:27:50And the all-important French horns, the horns the symbol
0:27:50 > 0:27:54in operatic music of the cuckold.
0:28:05 > 0:28:06Figaro is...
0:28:08 > 0:28:11..like this. One minute he is ready to explode,
0:28:11 > 0:28:14he comes back and he plots and plans.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29"I'm going to use all my powers, all my knavery.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32"I'm going to catch him, I'm going to kill him."
0:28:41 > 0:28:42This is revolution.
0:28:42 > 0:28:47"I'm going to show you, dear little Count, Contino."
0:28:50 > 0:28:52And he runs out...
0:28:54 > 0:28:56Fantastic.
0:28:56 > 0:29:01The Viennese nobility displayed their status through their clothes.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04And Mozart, convinced that he was the equal of Vienna's counts,
0:29:04 > 0:29:07dressed above his station.
0:29:07 > 0:29:10So, Kate, this is a really fabulous coat. How special is it?
0:29:10 > 0:29:13It's turquoise velvet with little leopard-skin spots.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16Can you imagine Mozart himself wearing a coat like this?
0:29:16 > 0:29:19Absolutely. This is a coat somewhat similar to one that would have been
0:29:19 > 0:29:20worn by a count.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23I think it is just the sort of thing that Mozart would have had to
0:29:23 > 0:29:26dress up in in Vienna to fit in.
0:29:26 > 0:29:28So it was like a camouflage for him?
0:29:28 > 0:29:31He was a servant but he was going to move into the world of the masters?
0:29:31 > 0:29:33It definitely gave him the social mobility.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36I love the way it has got matching covered buttons.
0:29:36 > 0:29:41Mozart was very cunning at working his way through society,
0:29:41 > 0:29:43but not without a lot of hard work,
0:29:43 > 0:29:46and a lot of talent, genius.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50Mozart is kind of bucking the system a bit, isn't he?
0:29:50 > 0:29:54He's not so political as to start a revolution in Vienna
0:29:54 > 0:29:59but he definitely is aware of the zeitgeist and chose that story
0:29:59 > 0:30:02because it really did embody the spirit of the age.
0:30:02 > 0:30:06Mozart's Figaro may have been full of all sorts of cunning plans,
0:30:06 > 0:30:09but it's his fiancee, the maid Susanna,
0:30:09 > 0:30:11who really gets things done.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14The Countess dictates a letter to Susanna -
0:30:14 > 0:30:19they are going to, together, try to trap the count
0:30:19 > 0:30:23and to reveal his amorous intentions towards Susanna.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45They trade phrases, Susanna repeats what she hears from the Countess.
0:30:56 > 0:31:01And there's an eroticism, trying to create the atmosphere of this
0:31:01 > 0:31:04assignation they are going to trap him into.
0:31:15 > 0:31:19But at one point, the voices come together and they sing in thirds,
0:31:19 > 0:31:24they sing as equals and this is the revelation.
0:31:33 > 0:31:37For a servant and her mistress to be singing a duet together
0:31:37 > 0:31:40and then further to be singing together as equals,
0:31:40 > 0:31:41this is unheard of.
0:31:49 > 0:31:55And this is what makes this opera so revolutionary, so modern.
0:31:56 > 0:31:58And so provocative.
0:32:06 > 0:32:09Before Figaro, servants outwitting their masters
0:32:09 > 0:32:13in opera had been comic characters, caricatures really.
0:32:13 > 0:32:17But Figaro and Susanna were fully-rounded people
0:32:17 > 0:32:20in situations the audience could recognise.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29The Marriage Of Figaro's first night on 1 May 1786
0:32:29 > 0:32:31aroused strong feelings.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33The Emperor liked it.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37Mozart's opera fitted in with his agenda to rein in the nobility.
0:32:37 > 0:32:42But what about the aristocrats themselves, the real-life counts and countesses?
0:32:42 > 0:32:44They had been good patrons to Mozart.
0:32:46 > 0:32:51If you look at this list, in 1784, he made three concerts,
0:32:51 > 0:32:53subscription concerts.
0:32:53 > 0:32:57And it's a list full of princes and counts and barons,
0:32:57 > 0:33:05it's unbelievable how many counts subscribed and gave him money.
0:33:05 > 0:33:09I can't even count the number of counts in that list, there's loads of them.
0:33:09 > 0:33:13Loads of them. And so he could afford to live in an apartment like this one.
0:33:13 > 0:33:14And after Figaro?
0:33:14 > 0:33:18There's just one name on the list and it was his good friend, Van Swieten.
0:33:18 > 0:33:20What effect did that have on his lifestyle?
0:33:20 > 0:33:22A huge one.
0:33:22 > 0:33:25A half a year later he had to move from this apartment,
0:33:25 > 0:33:29first floor, this really beautiful apartment,
0:33:29 > 0:33:31he had to move outside of the city wall.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34He really screwed up his housing situation then
0:33:34 > 0:33:36by mocking the counts of Vienna.
0:33:36 > 0:33:38I think he did. I really think he did.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43Even if people couldn't afford to go to the opera,
0:33:43 > 0:33:46they still got to hear Mozart's big tunes,
0:33:46 > 0:33:48because people sang them all over town -
0:33:48 > 0:33:50they were smash hits.
0:33:50 > 0:33:53It turned out that the ordinary people of Vienna loved Figaro.
0:33:55 > 0:33:59Mozart's opera soon spilled out onto the streets.
0:33:59 > 0:34:02The tunes were so catchy that even people who hadn't been
0:34:02 > 0:34:04to the opera knew how they went.
0:34:04 > 0:34:07It is said that Vienna's washerwomen were humming them
0:34:07 > 0:34:11as they worked, and in the Empire's second city of Prague, well,
0:34:11 > 0:34:13people were singing them on the streets.
0:34:13 > 0:34:18# Se vuol ballare, signor contino
0:34:18 > 0:34:23# Se vuol ballare, signor contino
0:34:23 > 0:34:29# Il chitarrino le suonero... #
0:34:33 > 0:34:36Although the social order gets shaken in The Marriage Of Figaro,
0:34:36 > 0:34:39it ultimately survives.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42The Count says he's sorry, Figaro and Susanna get married,
0:34:42 > 0:34:45everyone gets on nicely.
0:34:45 > 0:34:47Just two decades later, though,
0:34:47 > 0:34:52another opera staged in Vienna called for full-on revolution.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55It was written by Mozart's most important successor.
0:34:56 > 0:35:02There's a brilliant story that one day in 1787 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
0:35:02 > 0:35:08met Ludwig van Beethoven right here in Mozart's house behind me.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12Mozart was 31 - he was going to die at 35 -
0:35:12 > 0:35:17and Beethoven was just 16, but what a meeting of giants.
0:35:17 > 0:35:20And Mozart said to his wife Constanze,
0:35:20 > 0:35:23"One day he'll give the world something to talk about."
0:35:23 > 0:35:25And he did.
0:35:25 > 0:35:29Though Mozart might not have been too pleased, Beethoven later said,
0:35:29 > 0:35:33"I couldn't write operas like Don Giovanni or Figaro,
0:35:33 > 0:35:36"I have an aversion to them.
0:35:36 > 0:35:38"They're too frivolous for me."
0:35:47 > 0:35:50Beethoven lived in turbulent times,
0:35:50 > 0:35:54and he had a suitably tempestuous personality to match.
0:35:54 > 0:35:58Just look at him, pulling his tempestuous face there.
0:35:58 > 0:36:00Mozart wrote 22 operas,
0:36:00 > 0:36:03Beethoven just the one.
0:36:03 > 0:36:07Mozart is supposed to have written Figaro in six weeks,
0:36:07 > 0:36:13but Beethoven's single opera, Fidelio, took him 10 painful years.
0:36:18 > 0:36:23Fidelio may have been written in Vienna but its roots are in France.
0:36:23 > 0:36:29Earth-shattering events here in the 1780s inspired Beethoven's opera.
0:36:29 > 0:36:33In 1789, three years after the premiere of Figaro,
0:36:33 > 0:36:37the French stormed the prison of the Bastille.
0:36:38 > 0:36:40Beethoven was just 18
0:36:40 > 0:36:44and he was inspired by the ideals of the French Revolution -
0:36:44 > 0:36:48liberty, equality and brotherhood.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52After the fall of the Bastille, Louis XVI and his family
0:36:52 > 0:36:57moved to the palace that once stood in these gardens at the Tuileries.
0:36:57 > 0:37:02His Viennese queen, Marie Antoinette, used to walk here.
0:37:02 > 0:37:07But then, in 1793, they both met a bloody end on the guillotine
0:37:07 > 0:37:12erected just over there in what is now the Place de la Concorde.
0:37:12 > 0:37:15The heady early days of the French Revolution
0:37:15 > 0:37:18had given way to the Reign Of Terror.
0:37:18 > 0:37:22But Beethoven remained committed throughout his life to the ideals
0:37:22 > 0:37:26of the early Revolution and he fed them into his opera, Fidelio.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32The opera was written after Beethoven suffered
0:37:32 > 0:37:33an upheaval of his own.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39In 1802, he stayed in this village outside Vienna
0:37:39 > 0:37:42and came to a grim conclusion.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46"I am deaf," he wrote, admitting it at last.
0:37:46 > 0:37:51"I would have put an end to my life - only art withheld me."
0:37:51 > 0:37:55The first drafts of Fidelio followed soon after, inspired by a French
0:37:55 > 0:38:00craze for operas about prisoners being liberated from tyrants.
0:38:00 > 0:38:02Let's meet the characters.
0:38:02 > 0:38:04This is Florestan -
0:38:04 > 0:38:08he basically spends the whole opera chained to a wall in a dungeon
0:38:08 > 0:38:10being starved to death.
0:38:10 > 0:38:12Look, here are his manacles.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16The mistake he made, although it was a good thing to have done,
0:38:16 > 0:38:21was to go up against the corrupt local governor, Don Pizarro.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24Here he is with his corrupt-looking eyebrows.
0:38:24 > 0:38:30Pizarro had Florestan thrown into the dungeon on trumped-up charges.
0:38:30 > 0:38:34But when news started to get out of what had happened to poor Florestan,
0:38:34 > 0:38:37Don Pizarro decided to murder him.
0:38:37 > 0:38:40Here he comes with his dagger.
0:38:40 > 0:38:44But here is the most important person in the whole opera.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47This is Florestan's wife, Leonora.
0:38:47 > 0:38:52With immense courage, with immense loyalty, with immense fidelity -
0:38:52 > 0:38:57hence the opera's name - she tries to rescue her husband.
0:38:57 > 0:39:01Now, this is really a story about the French Revolution.
0:39:01 > 0:39:05It's a celebration of people who make personal sacrifices
0:39:05 > 0:39:08to try to bring down the corrupt state.
0:39:09 > 0:39:11It's all an awfully long way away
0:39:11 > 0:39:13from the bedroom farce of Figaro, isn't it?
0:39:18 > 0:39:23Fidelio brought a whole new dimension to opera.
0:39:23 > 0:39:25It showed that serious intellectual
0:39:25 > 0:39:30and political arguments could be made through music.
0:39:33 > 0:39:36One of the great moments in this opera something called
0:39:36 > 0:39:39the Prisoners' Chorus.
0:39:39 > 0:39:41They have been allowed out temporarily.
0:39:57 > 0:40:01This extraordinary sound world that Beethoven has created
0:40:01 > 0:40:04through the text, through the colour of the men's voices
0:40:04 > 0:40:09and through achingly beautiful orchestral lines.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34It's one of the most extraordinary moments
0:40:34 > 0:40:36in the entire repertoire of opera, truly.
0:40:40 > 0:40:45Like all other operas, Fidelio had to pass the Austrian censors.
0:40:45 > 0:40:49They banned everything with even a whiff of revolution about it,
0:40:49 > 0:40:54leaving the poor Viennese on a boring diet of light comedies.
0:40:54 > 0:40:55The theatre cleverly argued
0:40:55 > 0:40:59that Fidelio was really about womanly virtue.
0:40:59 > 0:41:01And it is.
0:41:01 > 0:41:03But even that is pretty radical because here,
0:41:03 > 0:41:08and it's unusual, the female character takes the lead.
0:41:08 > 0:41:12Leonora is a post-Revolutionary heroine.
0:41:12 > 0:41:16She starts off motivated by love for her husband
0:41:16 > 0:41:21but she ends up more generally on the side of all the oppressed.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24Admittedly she spends the whole opera cross-dressing
0:41:24 > 0:41:28and pretending to be a man, but Beethoven is making it clear
0:41:28 > 0:41:32that he thinks that women in operas can do more than just die
0:41:32 > 0:41:37tragically, as sopranos had tended to do in serious operas before now.
0:41:37 > 0:41:43In one key scene, Leonora draws a pistol on the corrupt governor.
0:41:43 > 0:41:48There may be tears in her eyes, but there's a gun in her hand.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05Beethoven had idolised Napoleon,
0:42:05 > 0:42:09and hoped that he'd revive the Revolution's early ideals.
0:42:09 > 0:42:13But Beethoven thought the power had gone to Napoleon's head
0:42:13 > 0:42:16and that he had become just another tyrant.
0:42:16 > 0:42:19It's pretty well known that Beethoven, here in Vienna,
0:42:19 > 0:42:24went off Napoleon after Napoleon crowned himself as Emperor.
0:42:24 > 0:42:28By 1805, when the first performance of Fidelio was scheduled,
0:42:28 > 0:42:33Napoleon's revolutionary armies were surging across Europe,
0:42:33 > 0:42:36they were deep into Habsburg territory.
0:42:36 > 0:42:41The decisive battle took place here at Ulm in modern Germany.
0:42:41 > 0:42:46There was now nothing between Napoleon and Vienna.
0:42:46 > 0:42:48SHE IMITATES GALLOPING
0:42:53 > 0:42:57Fidelio's premiere was planned for November 1805,
0:42:57 > 0:42:59here at the Theater An Der Wien,
0:42:59 > 0:43:01an opera house.
0:43:01 > 0:43:06But one week before it happened, Napoleon's army occupied Vienna.
0:43:06 > 0:43:09All the wealthy operagoers fled from the city
0:43:09 > 0:43:12and everyone else stayed indoors.
0:43:12 > 0:43:16Beethoven's former hero had managed to ruin Beethoven's big night.
0:43:16 > 0:43:19I can't imagine that that went down well.
0:43:19 > 0:43:21The few people who did come were French army officers
0:43:21 > 0:43:24wanting a bit of relaxation.
0:43:24 > 0:43:28At least the French officers liked the bit about the release
0:43:28 > 0:43:31of the prisoners, that reminded them of the fall of the Bastille.
0:43:31 > 0:43:36But as an invading, occupying force, they must have felt that they
0:43:36 > 0:43:42were being cast in the role of the unjust and tyrannical governor.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45Not surprisingly, Fidelio was a flop.
0:43:45 > 0:43:47It got dropped after just three nights.
0:43:49 > 0:43:51You can understand why the French said "non".
0:43:52 > 0:43:57At the end of the opera, the villain Pizarro gets executed
0:43:57 > 0:43:59and the lovers are reunited.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06As Leonora and Florestan are reunited,
0:44:06 > 0:44:08Beethoven launches an extraordinary duet.
0:44:11 > 0:44:13He launches into something feverish.
0:44:23 > 0:44:25"Oh, joy beyond words."
0:44:25 > 0:44:30And that how they sing, trading phrases, trading phrases to come
0:44:30 > 0:44:37together to stop the activity and sing about the unspeakable pain
0:44:37 > 0:44:40and sufferings that they have had to endure to get to this point.
0:44:57 > 0:44:59Such beautiful harmony.
0:44:59 > 0:45:04And then they're off again and in their joy they say,
0:45:04 > 0:45:06"Is it really you? Is it?"
0:45:23 > 0:45:29Very, very touching and simple, and yet totally real.
0:45:55 > 0:45:57Beethoven said that of all his works,
0:45:57 > 0:46:01Fidelio had brought him the most sorrow,
0:46:01 > 0:46:04and for that reason, was the one most dear to him.
0:46:04 > 0:46:09A decade later it was performed in Vienna again, in 1814,
0:46:09 > 0:46:11in the old Imperial Opera House.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14By this time, poor Beethoven was profoundly deaf.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18But timing is everything.
0:46:18 > 0:46:22This time round, Fidelio was an utter triumph.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25By now, the French armies had suffered
0:46:25 > 0:46:27a series of catastrophic defeats
0:46:27 > 0:46:31and the performance of Fidelio took place the very night
0:46:31 > 0:46:34before the leaders of Europe sat down for a peace
0:46:34 > 0:46:37conference here in Vienna, the Congress of Vienna.
0:46:37 > 0:46:41They loved the opera's message about resisting tyranny.
0:46:43 > 0:46:45And throughout the centuries,
0:46:45 > 0:46:49Fidelio has remained a celebration of freedom.
0:46:50 > 0:46:54In 2004, it was performed in the South African prison
0:46:54 > 0:46:57whose most famous inmate had been Nelson Mandela.
0:47:07 > 0:47:13As Beethoven said, "This opera will win me a martyr's crown."
0:47:13 > 0:47:14He was right.
0:47:14 > 0:47:18His sheer bloody-mindedness had paid off in the end.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34A quarter of a century later, in the northern Italian city of Milan,
0:47:34 > 0:47:38an opera was performed which reflected the hopes
0:47:38 > 0:47:43and dreams of a whole people, as they struggled towards nationhood.
0:47:43 > 0:47:45In the early 19th century,
0:47:45 > 0:47:48what we now call Italy wasn't yet an actual country -
0:47:48 > 0:47:51it was just a loose grouping of little states,
0:47:51 > 0:47:55with not much more to unite them than a language and a religion,
0:47:55 > 0:47:58and an idea that maybe they ought to get together.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01There was that and a growing dislike of the Austrians
0:48:01 > 0:48:04who held sway over their peninsula.
0:48:05 > 0:48:09The Italians needed someone or something to pull them
0:48:09 > 0:48:14all together, and in their time of crisis, they turned to opera.
0:48:14 > 0:48:16Along came the perfect composer,
0:48:16 > 0:48:20but first he had to go through a crisis of his own.
0:48:24 > 0:48:26Our composer's tragic tale made him
0:48:26 > 0:48:29the ideal man to capture his country's mood.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34In 1838, his infant daughter died.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37A year later, he lost his little son.
0:48:37 > 0:48:39And the next year, his wife.
0:48:41 > 0:48:45Our grieving composer was handed a new libretto for an opera.
0:48:45 > 0:48:47Would he write the music?
0:48:48 > 0:48:50"No", the composer said.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53He couldn't bear to think about work.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56He threw this libretto across the room
0:48:56 > 0:48:59and it fell open at a certain page
0:48:59 > 0:49:02and his eye fell on certain words, which were,
0:49:02 > 0:49:07"Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate."
0:49:07 > 0:49:11Fly away, thought, on wings of gold.
0:49:11 > 0:49:13Then he went to bed.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17But it was too late - those words had gone into his brain.
0:49:17 > 0:49:21The composer was this man, Giuseppe Verdi,
0:49:21 > 0:49:23and the chorus, Va, pensiero,
0:49:23 > 0:49:26would be the centrepiece of his opera Nabucco,
0:49:26 > 0:49:27based on a biblical tale.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36This is the Israelites in exile in Babylon
0:49:36 > 0:49:38and they long for their homeland.
0:49:38 > 0:49:41It's a song of the people.
0:49:42 > 0:49:44Verdi, he has the chorus singing in unison.
0:50:17 > 0:50:21You'll notice there's a sorrow in that, there's an entreaty
0:50:21 > 0:50:24but there's also defiance.
0:50:46 > 0:50:50This alternating between loud, very loud,
0:50:50 > 0:50:55and very, very soft is tremendously theatrical, of course.
0:51:10 > 0:51:12Although it's a collective mass,
0:51:12 > 0:51:15there's something that speaks to the individual in us,
0:51:15 > 0:51:19the desire for freedom, the desire for peace, for happiness.
0:51:39 > 0:51:43And here is Nabucco himself from a contemporary production,
0:51:43 > 0:51:46wearing rather a fetching apron.
0:51:46 > 0:51:47He is a baddie.
0:51:47 > 0:51:52He's king of the Babylonians, he's destroyed the temple in Jerusalem,
0:51:52 > 0:51:55and he's enslaved the Israelites.
0:51:55 > 0:52:01Now, for the Italians in the 1840s, a story about a foreign king
0:52:01 > 0:52:05and enslavement, this was a story that really resonated.
0:52:10 > 0:52:14Nabucco's premiere was here at La Scala opera house in Milan.
0:52:16 > 0:52:20The Austrian censors didn't see any problem with Nabucco -
0:52:20 > 0:52:22it was just an old Bible story, wasn't it?
0:52:23 > 0:52:27But the first audience on 9 March 1842 found the opera
0:52:27 > 0:52:31as emotionally powerful as it had been for Verdi himself.
0:52:36 > 0:52:42Verdi doing his conducting just down there was an amazing sight.
0:52:42 > 0:52:46It was said that he conducted as if his life depended on it.
0:52:46 > 0:52:48One person who saw him
0:52:48 > 0:52:52describes how he would let out shouts like a desperate man,
0:52:52 > 0:52:55he would pedal with his feet as if he were playing the organ
0:52:55 > 0:52:59and he would also sweat all over the score.
0:52:59 > 0:53:01And Nabucco was a total triumph.
0:53:04 > 0:53:08The chorus, Va, pensiero, that brought Verdi back from
0:53:08 > 0:53:12the brink of despair, well, that got tumultuous applause.
0:53:14 > 0:53:18Over the next year, Nabucco had a record-breaking run at La Scala.
0:53:20 > 0:53:22The Austrian authorities eventually caught on
0:53:22 > 0:53:26that part of the attraction was that it was political.
0:53:28 > 0:53:32The police were quite right to be quite worried about Nabucco.
0:53:32 > 0:53:36All the people who had been to see it, all these would-be Italians,
0:53:36 > 0:53:41well, they took away the message that a nation can be freed.
0:53:41 > 0:53:45In Verdi's version of the story, Nabucco gets cursed by God
0:53:45 > 0:53:51and he goes mad, then he sings a really lovely and moving aria
0:53:51 > 0:53:54where he begs for forgiveness for having enslaved the Israelites.
0:53:54 > 0:53:58His prayers are answered, his madness is lifted,
0:53:58 > 0:54:00and he frees his captives.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27Pulling on the heartstrings of the audience, obviously,
0:54:27 > 0:54:30and seeing this immense
0:54:30 > 0:54:35and powerful character being reduced
0:54:35 > 0:54:38to someone asking for forgiveness.
0:54:53 > 0:54:57Verdi does this brilliantly.
0:54:57 > 0:54:59He's finding himself with every opera,
0:54:59 > 0:55:03there's a new way of trying to express the personal...
0:55:06 > 0:55:10..trying to make the characters on stage, whether they be kings
0:55:10 > 0:55:16or they be courtesans, as definable as possible as human beings.
0:55:45 > 0:55:49But of course it takes a great performer to pull this off.
0:55:49 > 0:55:50It doesn't just happen.
0:55:54 > 0:55:58After Nabucco, Verdi became a passionate supporter
0:55:58 > 0:56:01of the movement for Italian reunification.
0:56:01 > 0:56:05When an uprising in Milan in 1848 drove out the Austrians,
0:56:05 > 0:56:07he was ecstatic.
0:56:07 > 0:56:09"Honour to all Italy," he wrote.
0:56:09 > 0:56:12"The hour of her liberation has sounded."
0:56:14 > 0:56:16Verdi got a bit carried away there -
0:56:16 > 0:56:21it took until 1871 for Italy finally to become a single country.
0:56:23 > 0:56:26Verdi himself became a national hero
0:56:26 > 0:56:29and a member of Italy's first Parliament.
0:56:29 > 0:56:33And Va, pensiero became Italy's unofficial national anthem.
0:56:35 > 0:56:40He died in Milan in 1901 after a long composing career,
0:56:40 > 0:56:43and he is buried in this crypt.
0:56:45 > 0:56:50Verdi was always rather grumpy about his own astronomical success.
0:56:50 > 0:56:53For his funeral he requested something very simple,
0:56:53 > 0:56:56just one priest, just one carriage.
0:56:56 > 0:57:00But a month later, his body was moved here
0:57:00 > 0:57:05and for this final journey, 300,000 people turned up to see him off -
0:57:05 > 0:57:07that's half the population of Milan.
0:57:07 > 0:57:13And when the procession arrived, a chorus of 800 sang Va, pensiero.
0:57:18 > 0:57:22Va, pensiero is a brilliant example of how a song,
0:57:22 > 0:57:26just a song, can become a mirror for a generation,
0:57:26 > 0:57:29reflecting its hopes and dreams.
0:57:29 > 0:57:32This building is now a retirement home for musicians
0:57:32 > 0:57:37and singers who still find passion and meaning in Verdi's music.
0:57:37 > 0:57:48# Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate
0:57:48 > 0:57:57# Va, ti posa sui clivi, sui colli
0:57:58 > 0:58:08# Ove olezzano tepide e molli... #
0:58:08 > 0:58:11Next time, I'll visit France and Germany to look at
0:58:11 > 0:58:15a new kind of opera that took off in the middle of the 19th century.
0:58:15 > 0:58:19It delved even deeper into people's private desires
0:58:19 > 0:58:23for freedom, identity and sex.
0:58:29 > 0:58:40# ..al patire virtu. #
0:58:44 > 0:58:46APPLAUSE