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Donald Macleod investigates the challenges facing Verdi, while Italy was under Austrian rule, as he tried to cope with the strict censorship applied to operas such as Rigoletto and Un ballo in maschera, and the role played by Nabucco and La battaglia di Legnano in the movement for the unification of Italy. In the turbulent years of the 19th century, when Italy was struggling to gain independence from its Austrian rulers, Verdi's patriotic choruses seemed to embody the spirit of the movement for the unification of Italy, and an entire mythology has grown up around Verdi as hero of the Risorgimento. Donald Macleod investigates the role Verdi's music was thought to have played in Italy's fight for freedom, and the challenges he faced in his own battle with the Austrian censors.

Questa o quella' (Rigoletto)
Duke ..... Roberto Alagna (tenor)
Orchestra of La Scala, Milan Conductor, Riccardo Muti

'Va pensiero' (Nabucco)
Chorus and Orchestra of Deutsche Oper, Berlin
Conductor, Giuseppe Sinopoli

La battaglia di Legnano (extract from Act I)
Arrigo ..... José Carreras (tenor)
Rolando ..... Matteo Manuguerra (baritone)
ORF Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Vienna
Conductor, Lamberto Gardelli

È il sol dell'anima (Rigoletto)
Duke ..... Roberto Alagna (tenor)
Gilda ..... Andrea Rost (soprano)
Orchestra of La Scala, Milan
Conductor, Riccardo Muti

Rigoletto (extract from Act II)
Rigoletto ..... Renato Bruson (baritone)
Gilda ..... Andrea Rost (soprano)
Orchestra of La Scala, Milan
Conductor, Riccardo Muti

Un ballo in maschera (extract from Act II)
Amelia ..... Margaret Price (soprano)
Riccardo ..... Luciano Pavarotti (tenor)
Renato ..... Renato Bruson (baritone)
National Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor, George Solti.