Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi

Verdi revered two paramount figures of the Italian culture: Gioachino Rossini and Alessandro Manzoni. He regarded the first as the biggest Italian composer and I Promessi Sposi written by the second, remained on Verdi’s bedside table until his death. When Rossini died in 1868, Verdi invited 13 Italian composers to write all together a Requiem dedicated to the Master of Pesaro. For a number of reasons its  performance was cancelled 9 days before the scheduled first performance. However, when in 1873 Verdi heard of Manzoni’s death, the composer, starting from the ‘Dies Irae’ already sketched for Rossini’s Requiem, decided to write alone a Requiem in memory of the illustrious writer and poet.  Despite undeniable operatic passages, the work is not, as it is often called, ‘the best Verdi opera’, let alone ‘an opera in liturgical vestments’. For someone admittedly agnostic, Messa da Requiem emerges as a overwhelming creation, modern in its unique recollection and understanding of Life and Death musically expressed by a man reconciled with its spirituality.

Conductor | Gianpaolo Bisanti

Soprano | Rachele Stanisci

Mezzosoprano | Enkelejda Shkosa

Tenor | Massimiliano Pisapia

Bass | Nicola Ulivieri

Coro do Teatro Nacional de São Carlos
Principal Conductor | Giovanni Andreoli

Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa
Principal Conductor |  Joana Carneiro