AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Now to a birthday party. Every year, fans of Giuseppe Verdi gather in New York to celebrate him and his operas, like "La Traviata," "Aida" and "Otello." The latest gathering was Friday, marking 212 years since the composer's birth, and reporter Jeff Lunden was there.
JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE: Verdi Square, on Manhattan's Upper West Side, is right by a subway station. And that's where a group of Verdi lovers gather - by his statue.
AUGUST VENTURA: My name is August Ventura, and I wanted to find a way to be proud of my Italian heritage, but to look at something that is more of a uniting force - the force of music and the force of this great man, Giuseppe Verdi.
LUNDEN: The ceremony begins with a violin solo of some of Verdi's ballet music performed by Morning Huang.
MORNING HUANG: (Playing Violin).
LUNDEN: Then Ventura addresses the crowd of mostly senior citizens, which also includes some curious workers in hard hats and passersby.
VENTURA: He gave us so much, and he is a mirror to which we look at ourselves. Last year, what was on our minds was immigration and human displacement, and these figure prominently in Verdi's operas. This year, I think what is on a lot of our minds is freedom of speech.
LUNDEN: Music is handed out, and the group sings a famous chorus from Verdi's first hit opera, "Nabucco," about ancient Jews oppressed by the Babylonians.
HUANG: (Playing Violin).
AUGUST VENTURA AND UNIDENTIFIED VERDI ENTHUSIASTS: (Singing, in Italian).
LUNDEN: Opera dramaturg Cori Ellison explains that the chorus was written to speak to Italians who were then striving to create a new country.
CORI ELLISON: Even though he was talking about ancient peoples, ancient biblical peoples, the audiences understood - and we understand - that he's talking to all of us during his own time and today and forever.
LUNDEN: Many of Verdi's operas deal with not just political struggles, but the personal struggles of outsiders. And they feature beautiful music. One participant names each of Verdi's operas.
UNIDENTIFIED VERDI ENTHUSIAST: "Rigoletto," "Il Trovatore," "La Traviata"...
LUNDEN: And each participant places a red rose in a vase, which is then set in front of the statue. And as a finale, the group exclaims...
UNIDENTIFIED VERDI ENTHUSIASTS: Viva Verdi.
LUNDEN: For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF UNIDENTIFIED GROUP'S PERFORMANCE OF VERDI'S "NABUCCO") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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