Although quite different from traditional models, Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem is a much-loved and preferred work for millions of classical music fans around the world. For nearly a century and a half, it has enjoyed enduring fame and has never left the concert stage. The only work by the composer in this genre, the Requiem enjoys the same widespread popularity as the most famous of Verdi’s 26 operas. Capturing the composer’s patriotic sentiments, it also perpetuates the memory of his great compatriots.
The work’ creation story is long and largely connected to several personal losses of Verdi. Between 1868 and 1878 his father, Antonio Baretzi, who was his patron and the father of his first wife Margherita, and Francesco-Maria Piave, a close friend and long-time librettist of Verdi, died one after the other. Alessandro Manzoni, a writer whom the composer had admired unreservedly since his youth, ended his earthly journey, and on 13 November 1868, Gioachino Rossini left this world. On that occasion, Verdi wrote: “A great name – the most popular in our age – has perished! His fame was very wide – he bore the glory of Italy! And though I was not very close friends with Rossini, I mourn with everyone the loss of this great artist.” Just four days after Rossini’s death, Verdi suggested a carefully designed project to perpetuate his memory. According to this project, a committee of competent and intelligent people should unite the most respected Italian composers to write a funeral Mass to be performed on the anniversary of Rossini’s death. A committee was actually set up-composed of Milanese professionals-and the movements of the Requiem were distributed by lot among 12 composers (alas, with the exception of Verdi, none of their names outlived their time). To Verdi belongs the last movement, the Libera me, which as a rule is only performed on particularly solemn occasions (usually most Requiems end with the Agnus Dei movement).
Unfortunately, due to the fault of conductor Angelo Mariani, the planned celebratory performance of the Mass in the church of San Petronio in Bologna – the city considered to be Rossini’s true musical homeland – failed. This was the reason Verdi broke off his more than 20-year friendship with Mariani. A year later, the composer announced that he had decided to compose the entire Requiem himself, the first two movements of which were already complete and formed a single whole with the last movement written earlier, which had been assigned to him according to the draw of 1868. Work on the piece, however, proceeded sluggishly.
On 22 May 1873, Alessandro Manzoni, the man Verdi adored, passed away. On learning of his death, Verdi said he would not go to Milan to attend his funeral because he would not have the manhood, but the very next day he decided to create a grand monument, the Requiem, to be performed in Milan by the best singers on the first anniversary of Manzoni’s death. He worked on the Requiem so quickly that just three months later – in August 1873 – he sent an invitation to the premiere to his favourite singer, the first Amneris in the Italian production of Aida, Maria Waldmann. For the part of the soprano he chose Teresa Stolz, a 40-year-old Czech singer who had previously appeared in the Italian premieres of Don Carlos, The Power of Destiny and Aida.
he Requiem was first performed in the church of San Marco in Milan on 22 May 1874, the first anniversary of Manzoni’s death. In addition to mezzo-soprano Maria Waldmann and soprano Teresa Stolz, the cast also included tenor Giuseppe Capponi and bass Ormondo Maini, who in 1872 had also been soloists in Aida, on the European staging of the opera. Verdi himself conducted. The Requiem was repeated at La Scala di Milano three days later on 25 May with tremendous success.
Although written in the form and canons of the Catholic funeral mass, Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem is quite different from its ‘brethren’. In style, it is very close to the composer’s later operas – especially Aida, which was composed at the same time. Here the same virile heroism, angry protest, deep suffering and enlightened lyricism are embodied. The extended vocal lines (arioses) and the ensembles (duets, tercets and quartets) with the typical Italian opera cantilena are widely present. The orchestra, which is large in composition, not only accompanies the singers but also paints vivid and imaginative pictures. Verdi abandoned the originally conceived 12 movements and divided the traditional Latin text into 7 movements, the most spectacular being the second movement (Dies irae), which in turn is divided into 9 episodes.
No.1 Requiem (Eternal Rest) opens with a subtle whisper of the choir, countered by the soloists’ bright, energetic quartet.
No. 2 Dies irae (Day of Wrath) paints sharply conflicted pictures of the Judgement Day, full of anxiety and dread. The episodes that make up this movement are reminiscent of operatic scenes with the alternation of chorus, solo arioso, duets, trios and quartets. The musical imagery of death (in Dies irae) alternates with the dialogues of four trumpets behind the stage and orchestra in Tuba mirum (Trumpet eternal) and the somber, seemingly frozen bass solo. Two lyrical episodes with beautiful mournful melodies follow: the mezzo-soprano solo Liber scriptus (A Book Written) and the tercet Quid (What Should I Say, Unhappy One). They are separated by the eerie-sounding chorus. The episode Rex tremendae is built on the contrast of the gloomy phrases of the chorus and the pleading ones of the quartet of soloists.
The next three episodes are lyrical: the bright, calm female duet Recordare (Remember the good Jesus), the tenor’s perfectly operatic arioso Ingemisco (Guilty, I exalt and repent), the bass’s majestic but more mournful solo Confutatis (Judgment is pronounced on the shamed). The dreaded Dies irae appears for the last time in this movement, but it now runs much shorter than on previous occasions and soon gives way to the sadly placid quartet with chorus Lacrymosa (It is a day of tears). This episode completes the second movement and is one of the most penetrating, with astonishing melodic beauty.
№3 Offertorio (Offering of the Gifts) – a decorative-contemplative quartet of soloists, which unfolds leisurely, in hushed sonority.
№4 Sanctus (World), opening with a trumpet solo – a brilliant fugue for double choir, an embodiment of the creative exultant power of life.
№5 Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) – restrained, distinct duet of female voices, variations in an old style on an unusual theme in the spirit of medieval church chant in unison.
№6 Lux aeterna (Eternal Light) – a tercet of soloists, built on the contrast between light and darkness, with a gradual return of the mood of the first movement.
Developed finale – №7 Libera me (Lord, have mercy on me) is based, like the second part, on the juxtaposition of episodes of different character. The soprano’s dramatic solo leads to the return of the musical theme from the eerie chorus of the Dies irae. At the centre is the mournful episode without orchestral accompaniment (soprano with chorus), as a reminiscence of the first movement. The work ends with a choral fugue full of determination, which dialogues with the double fugue of the fourth movement. The final burst of despair is abruptly cut short and – as if cutting off breath – the Requiem ends with an ominous whisper. The spirit is defeated, but not broken – such is the conceptual conclusion of this gigantic work, which embodies conflicts typical of Verdi’s operas.