Scenes from the novel

Oh gods!

Giuseppe Verdi

«О, боги, боги!» - «Oh, gods, gods!» This exclamation appears ten times in The Master and Margarita, as a leidmotiv. According to some sources Bulgakov would have found it in the aria Numi, pietà del mio soffrir! from the opera Aida written by Giuseppe Verdi. He loved this opera very much and quoted it often. The libretto is written by Antonio Ghislanzoni.

Here you can see a fragment from this opera as it was played in De Munt in Brussels, Belgium, on October 15, 2004.