Nabucco (short for Nabucodonosor, English Nebuchadnezzar) is an Italian-language opera in four acts composed in 1841 by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on the Biblical story and the 1836 play by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornue. It was first performed in Milan on 9 March 1842 under the original name of Nabucodonosor.
The success of Verdi's first opera Oberto resulted in Bartolomeo Merelli, La Scala's impresario, offering Verdi a contract for three more works. After the failure of his second opera Un giorno di regno in 1840, he vowed to not compose, but was persuaded by Merelli to write Nabucco. Nabucco was the third work in this genre and is the opera which is considered to have permanently established his reputation as a composer. Nabucco follows the plight of the Jews as they are assaulted, conquered, and subsequently exiled from their homeland by the Babylonian King Nabucco (in English, Nebuchadnezzar). The historical events are used as background for a romantic and political plot.
The definitive name of Nabucco for the opera (and its protagonist) was first used at a performance at the San Giacomo Theatre of Corfu in September, 1844. Nonetheless, a more plausible alternative for the establishment of this abbreviated form claims that it was the result of a revival of the opera in Teatro Giglio of Lucca.