"Musicabilissimo!" he replied; "full of dramatic power and telling
situations!"

"Take it home with you, then, and write the music for it."

Verdi declared that he did not wish to compose, but the worthy
impresario forced the manuscript on him, and persisted that he should
undertake the work. The composer returned home with the libretto, but
threw it on one side without looking at it, and for the next five months
continued his reading of bad romances and yellow-covered novels.

The impulse of work soon came again, however. One beautiful June day the
manuscript met his eye, while looking listlessly over some old papers.
He read one scene and was struck by its beauty. The instinct of musical
creation rushed over him with irresistible force; he seated himself at
the piano, so long silent, and began composing the music. The ice was
broken. Verdi soon entered into the spirit of the work, and in three
months "Nabucco" was entirely completed. Merelli gladly accepted it, and
it was performed at La Scala in the spring of 1842. As a result Verdi
was besieged with petitions for new works from every impresario in
Italy.


II.

From 1812 to 1851 Verdi's busy imagination produced a series of operas,
which disputed the palm of popularity with the foremost composers of his
time. "I Lombardi," brought out at La Scala in 1843; "Ernani," at Venice
in 1844; "I Due Foscari," at Rome in 1844; "Giovanna D'Arco," at Milan,
and "Alzira," at Naples in 1845; "Attila," at Venice in 1846; and