Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra with NEWVoices
GIUSEPPE VERDI: Messa da Requiem (90 min)
Join us for the post-concert reception in the lobby.
Kevin Sütterlin, music director
Phillip Swan, chorus master
Marsha Thompson, soprano
Kara Morgan, mezzo-soprano
Josh Kohl, tenor
Andy Papas, bass
One of the most ambitious, and certainly the most theatrical, settings of the Requiem Mass, the traditional Catholic Mass for the dead, was written by a man of no professed religious faith—indeed, Verdi was a life-long agnostic. He was, however, a fervent believer in Italian musical culture, and the then not-yet-realized dream of Italian national unification. His Requiem was inspired by the passing of two cultural titans—the first, the composer Gioachino Rossini in 1868, and author and poet Alessandro Manzoni in 1873.
Verdi had proposed the composition of a Requiem for Rossini in the immediate aftermath of his passing—he suggested that 13 Italian composers should each contribute a section of the mass—a collective outpouring of grief and respect for the operatic master. The project ultimately never cohered, and Verdi tabled the section that he had written, the Libera Me, Domine (Deliver me, Lord, from eternal death). After the death of Manzoni—the artist that Verdi revered above all others—he resurrected his project and composed the entirety of a new mass for the dead, adding his Libera Me as the final movement. The work was premiered to great acclaim in 1874, although some critics were appalled by the unabashedly operatic writing—no matter to Verdi, who fully intended his Requiem to be a work for the concert hall, not a liturgical setting.
The work is scored for chorus, four vocal soloists (soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and bass) and a sizeable orchestra. It is set in seven large sections, following the traditional structure of the mass. The opening Requiem aeternam (Grant them eternal rest) is hushed and solemn, while the following te decet hymnus and Kyrie eleison (Lord, have mercy) introduce both imitative counterpoint and later the solo quartet.
The following section, the longest of the work, erupts with a literal scream of terror from the mass of voices and instruments, as they intone the Dies irae (Day of wrath), a depiction of the horrors of the final Day of Judgment. The overall mood throughout this section is grim, with on- and off-stage trumpets heralding the raising of the dead, and the ominous, martial flourishes that mark the setting of the Rex tremendae (King of awful majesty); interspersed with these menaces are pleas and prayers for remembrance, forgiveness, and salvation led by the vocal quartet, in solos and combined voices.
The Offertorium provides respite in two movements for the solo quartet, and the mood finally turns joyful in the Sanctus, a depiction of the heavenly host praising the divine with an energetic, sparkling fugue.
The chant-inspired Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) and Lux aeterna (Light eternal) give way to the return of angst and foreboding in the final Libera me, which, after all, is a prayer for deliverance from death, the wrath of judgment, and the fires of hell. Verdi concludes this grand work with a decidedly modern note of ambivalence, with gentle chords enshrining the soprano’s and chorus’ final supplications.
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