O5 - Verdi’s Requiem

ABOUT THE CONCERT

Going beyond the three great Italian bel canto composers – Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti – Giuseppe Verdi came up with further musical and vocal themes, in particular an extension of the psychological depth of characters and scenes in opera. He fully liberated his predecessors’ melodies to accentuate dramatic situations. His operas are dramas with grandiose stories, thrilling crowd scenes and other impressive displays that stir emotion and empathy while giving insight into the human condition, a theme present also in this realist and romantic author’s 1873 Requiem, a musical interpretation of the Catholic Mass for the dead. His ability to encompass a wide spectrum of expression, from meditative pauses to extroverted contrasts, particularly reveals the hand of an artist with a theatrical background. Verdi’s Messa da Requiem combines religious opulence, grandeur and humility with operatic drama and passion, where its doomsday imagery in particular, as well as the lyrical cry to the Lamb of God, make this work probably the most operatic funeral Mass to ever be composed. This monumental religious composition, which has long since become a piece heard exclusively in concerts, was inspired by respect for the character and work of the Italian national poet and humanist Alessandro Manzoni. It was on the occasion of the first anniversary of his death that the composer conducted the premiere of his Requiem in the church of Saint Mark in Milan.

Programme

Giuseppe Verdi: Messa da Requiem 

Performers

Petr Popelka conductor
Mária Porubčinová soprano
Lucie Hilscherová mezzo-soprano
Peter Berger tenor
Pavel Švingr bass
Prague Philharmonic Choir
Lukáš Vasilek choirmaster