Viva VERDI

Giuseppe Verdi was one of the most influential composers of Italian opera in the 19th century. For a while, myth had it that there were direct connections between Verdi's works during the 1840s and 1850s and Italian nationalism. There were even claims that the famous chorus Va', pensiero was an anthem for Italian patriots, who were seeking to unify their country in the years up to 1861 and free it from foreign control (the theme of exiles singing about their homeland, and its lines like O mia patria, si bella e perduta / "O my country, so lovely and so lost" was thought to have resonated with many Italians).

The myth of Verdi as composer of the Risorgimento also led to claims that the slogan "Viva VERDI" was used throughout Italy to secretly call for Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia (Victor Emmanuel King of Italy), referring to Victor Emmanuel II, then king of Sardinia. But that's a fanciful Italian acronym, and the legacy of Verdi lives on in his famous masterworks.