Musical Moments #19

“Verdi….has wonderful bursts of passion.  His passion is brutal, it is true, ….it never bores.”
Georges Bizet (1859) 
 

Requiem 
“Requiem aeternam”
Giuseppe Verdi  (1813-1901)

The Messa da Requiem, sometimes called the Manzoni Requiem, is one of the all-time great choral masterworks. When asked to comment about the piece, famous conductor Hans von Bulow called it the composer’s “latest opera, though in ecclesiastical robes.” Verdi dedicated the piece to the memory of the Italian author and philosopher Alessandro Manzoni, and the Requiem remains a favorite of audiences, singers, and players—not to mention conductors.

The work uses the traditional musical setting of the Roman Catholic funeral mass, but it was never written for liturgical purposes. Even so, it premiered in 1874 in San Marco Church in Milan and just three days later was performed at La Scala Opera House where Verdi himself conducted it in the venue he believed it belonged.  But Verdi wrote that he wanted the sound to be more like oratorio singing, “thus colors that can be good in the theater will not satisfy me at all.”

Verdi’s Requiem was an immediate hit in Paris and other prominent cities in Europe, except in London, where they could not fill the newly built Royal Albert Hall. Londoners, it seemed, could not get past the fact that it was a “religious work” in a secular venue.

In his personal life, Verdi was a spiritual person, but he wasn’t conventionally religious. As a child, he walked barefoot for miles to attend church, but it was more for the opportunity to play the organ than to worship. Later, when he became famous, he would escort his wife to church but never go in.  

Verdi had early in life become personally acquainted with the sorrow of death while in his mid-twenties after losing his first wife and their two small children to illness, all in the space of three months. These deaths no doubt weighed on his mind throughout his life and contributed to the powerful emotion he masterfully displays in the Requiem.

During the last part of Mr. Verdi’s life, he was a “rock star,” especially in Italy.  As he lay dying in a hotel in Milan, a telegraph station was set up in the lobby so that every fifteen minutes an update could be sent. Gestures of respect were offered such as straw being strewn on the streets around the hotel to mute the noise of the horses and carriages so as to not disturb him.  

Verdi requested a simple funeral with only a few friends and no music, but outside the church where the funeral was held 200,000 people stood in silence to honor him. When his coffin was moved to its final resting place, approximately 300,000 people lined the streets, and at the graveside 800 sang, led by none other than a cellist who played for Verdi at La Scala, the soon to be great conductor, Arturo Toscanini. 

This recording comes from a live performance in 2017 and features soprano Mary Wilson, mezzo soprano Shirin Eskandani, tenor Robert Breault, and baritone Timothy Jones singing with the Bach Choir and Orchestra.  

From solemn to passionate and hushed to boisterous, Verdi’s sincerity and ability to write dramatically gripping music is on full display here as he prepares you for the raucous “Dies Irae” movement. Stay tuned, it will be offered to you in the near future.

After playing the opening of the opera Otello at La Scala with Verdi conducting, when Toscanini reached home that night he woke his mother saying,
“Get on your knees, mother, and say, Viva Verdi.” Arturo Toscanini (1887)

-John V. Sinclair

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