Note 21 — Chapter VII · OTELLO: FURTHER REFORMS IN OPERA SERIA.
Reading edition
One of the worst puns ever made was made in verse on the production of Verdi’s highly instrumental “Nabuchodonosore” at Paris in 1845. It is contained in the following quatrain:—
Vraiment l’affiche est dans son tort, En faux on devrait la poursuivre: Pourquoi nous annoncer Nabuchodonos—or Quand c’est Nabuchodonos—cuivre?