Program Notes
Verdi: Messa da Requiem
Sunday, May 23, 2010; 4PM
Palace Theatre, 61 Atlantic Street, Stamford, CT 06901
Call the Palace Theatre directly for tickets to this performance at 203-325-4466.
Verdi wrote very few non-operatic works – but of these the one which stands out is the Requiem. Naturally, much of his operatic skill is present in the Requiem, but the style and texture are very different, despite the oft-made quip that it is his “opera for the church!” There is no question that Verdi was a master of dramatic art, as can be seen in his many operas based on Shakespeare, and so it is with the Requiem. In it he captures the drama of the Latin text and magnifies it through music.
The story of how the Requiem came into being is an interesting one. Many music-lovers know that it was composed for Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873) (author of I Promessi Sposi – The Betrothed) who was regarded by Italians, especially the Milanese, as the central figure of Italian culture and literature of the 19th century. But it is less well known that Verdi had been the innovator of a plan to honor Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) by collaborating with other leading composers of Italian opera on a requiem to be played on the anniversary of Rossini’s death. Verdi’s contribution was to be the Libera me. However, the anniversary of Rossini’s death came and went without any concrete result. (The project was eventually completed, but the memorial to Rossini never actually took place). When Alessandro Manzoni died in 1873, Verdi decided to compose a memorial requiem entirely himself. Verdi reworked the existing Libera me and incorporated thematic material from it in the other movements.
The Requiem was written during a fallow period of fifteen years between Aida and Othello, twenty years after his incredible hat trick of Rigoletto, Trovatore and Traviata. The orchestration and length of the work make it a very close second to Berlioz’s Requiem (with which Verdi was quite familiar). It is divided into seven segments, and of these, the Dies Irae comprises approximately half the total length of the piece.
Each of the soloists makes an entry in the Kyrie eleison, after which they are parsed out in all their permutations, with such seeming inevitability that you scarcely notice the great care the composer has taken to assure each an equal share of the action. The bass, like an angel of death, has the first solo of the Dies irae, albeit a brief one, at the words Mors stupebit. Then comes the mezzo’s haunting aria on the proffering of the Book of the Dead (Liber scriptus), in which all things are written, nothing hidden. At the center of the movement the soprano joins the mezzo-soprano for the Recordare, with its striking cello-dominated climax; there follow the big solos for tenor (Ingemisco, a plea to be numbered not with the goats but among the lambs) and bass (Confutatis maledictis, begging to be spared from the acrid flame of Judgment Day). Meanwhile there are fine trio and quartet passages, and, in the profound tutti’s of the Salve me and Lacrymosa, a scoring that allows the soprano’s several high B’s and C’s to float over the mass of performers with crystalline clarity.
Verdi’s Dies Irae is a frightening apocalypse, with its bass-drum explosions and rapid passagework fleeing in all directions. This section should terrify with its graphic suggestion of the Devil chasing you to Hell. Nor are Gabriel’s trumpets in the Tuba mirum especially comforting, but Verdi offsets the horror with passages of tender supplication and a glimmer of optimism as in the Offertorium.
The Sanctus is a fugue for double chorus. In contrast, the Agnus Dei is a model of simplicity and eloquence. Liturgically, the Libera me is not part of the requiem mass but is recited over the coffin as it is taken from the church. It reprises some of the requiem text and Verdi reprises some of the earlier thematic material. The music moves into a fugue which dissolves into an insistent, almost primitively rhythmic "libera me, Domine" (deliver me, O Lord) before ending quietly with the same chant-like material with which the movement opened.
The theatricality of Verdi’s setting has led some to question the sincerity of the Requiem. This really misses the point! Verdi intended the Requiem as a monument to a great man, not as a liturgical work, and in this Verdi succeeded beyond all expectation. Whatever his own personal religious views, Verdi invested the text with a great intensity and depth of feeling which still ring true.
For soloists (S,Ms,T,B); chorus (SSAATTBB); piccolo, flutes I-II, oboes I-II, clarinets I-II, bassoons I-IV; horns I-IV, trumpets I-IV, offstage trumpets I-IV, trombones I-III, tuba; timpani, bass drum; strings. Composed 1874 in Sant’Agata, in memory of Alessandro Manzoni. First performed 22 May 1874 at the Church of San Marco, Milan, Verdi conducting.