In some areas, the Austrian censor was in control; in the most other states and duchies there were localized systems. A royal committee was set up in Naples in 1807 to supervise all aspects of theatrical production, while at the Vatican Pius VII appointed a censorship board of six cavalieri and a prelate.
2.3.1 Austrian Censorship
Austrian influence of Italian political life was assured by the return of the Kingdom of Lombardy- Venetia and the central Duchies to Austrian control in 1814.
In 1842, the year of Nabucco a terrific explosion was imminent. The Austrians did censor the text of the “Immenso Jeovah” chorus, the censors were not happy at this description of captive people breaking its chains. The modification substitutes the "ridente" for pianto".
Ex: 2.2: Nabucco, No13 ("Finale Ultimo"), draft for mm 136-39.
The censors totally overlooked what turned out to Verdi’s most potent cry for freedom. The verse;
"Oh mia patria sì bella e perduta!
O membranza sì cara e fatal!"
(Oh, my homeland, so lovely and lost!
Oh, remembrance so dear and fateful!)
Such very simple words inevitably misted the eyes of the audience. For Italians, suppressed by foreign occupiers, the message was …show more content…
A battle over o new opera began when Verdi decided to base the work on the play Le Roi s`amuse by Victor Hugo. This had been a sensitive issue for the French authorities. He knew he would be facing the same predicament that Hugo had encountered, but the controversial drama appealed to him, and Verdi never was one to give in to a system he believed was irrational and unfair. Originally titled La maledizione (The curse), the opera was contracted to open in Venice in 1851. The title of the work was later changed to the name of the court jester,