Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma, to a family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the help of a local patron, Antonio Barezzi. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Gioachino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini, and Gaetano Donizetti, whose works significantly influenced him.
In his early operas, Verdi demonstrated sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy. He also served briefly as an elected politician. The chorus “Va, pensiero” from his early opera Nabucco (1842), and similar choruses in later operas, were much in the spirit of the unification movement, and the composer himself became esteemed as a representative of these ideals. An intensely private person, Verdi did not seek to ingratiate himself with popular movements. As he became professionally successful, he was able to reduce his operatic workload and sought to establish himself as a landowner in his native region. He found further fame with the three peaks of his ‘middle period’: Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore and La traviata (both 1853). He surprised the musical world by returning, after his success with the opera Aida (1871), with three late masterpieces: his Requiem (1874), and the operas Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893).
The Messa da Requiem is a musical setting of the Catholic funeral mass (Requiem) for four soloists, double choir and orchestra. It was composed in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, whom Verdi admired, and therefore also referred to as the Manzoni Requiem. The first performance, at the San Marco church in Milan on 22 May 1874, conducted by the composer, marked the first anniversary of Manzoni’s death. It was followed three days later by the same performers at La Scala. Verdi conducted his work at major venues in Europe. Verdi composed the last part of the text, Libera me, first, as his contribution to the Messa per Rossini that he had begun after Gioachino Rossini had died, it already contained the music that later begins the Dies irae sequence.
Considered too operatic to be performed in a liturgical setting, the Requiem is usually given in concert form; it takes around 90 minutes to perform. Musicologist David Rosen calls it “probably the most frequently performed major choral work composed since the compilation of Mozart’s Requiem”.
Soloists: Andiswa Makana – Soprano, Violina Anguelov – Mezzo, Kananelo Sihau – Tenor, Bongani Khubeka – Bass
Conducted by Richard Cock.
REQUIEM (full) – Giuseppe VERDI // Danish National Symphony Orchestra (LIVE)
Click on the link to hear this fantastic work – BUT THIS REALLY IS A WORK TO BE HEARD IN LIVE PERFORMANCE!