Due to Iwona Sobotka’s indisposition, the soprano part in Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem during the concert on 3.11 will be performed by Oksana Nosatova.

The impulse that inspired Verdi to compose a funeral mass was the death of Alessandro Manzoni in 1873. The writer was one of the most important figures of Italian cultural life in the 19th century, and Verdi admired him greatly. He thus suggested to the Milanese authorities the idea of commemorating Manzoni’s passing with a special piece. The premiere of Messa da requiem per l’anniversario della morte di Manzoni took place on 22 May 1874 in the San Marco Church in Milan. It was performed by a grand orchestra and a mixed choir of 120 singers under the baton of the composer.

In the days that followed, the Requiem was repeated several times at La Scala to wildly ecstatic audiences. Thus was born a work that has since been performed on every stage in Europe. Verdi modelled his piece on the conventional structures of the missae pro defunctis, complementing it with a Libera me responsory borrowed from the tradition of the exequy; however, it definitely lacked a liturgical character and was more influenced by the grand concert masses of the 19th century. The composer adopted a quite subjective approach to the Latin texts – as an agnostic and a man who kept his distance from the institutional confines of the Church, he mainly emphasised the human dimension of death and the fear and quandaries associated with it. Hence, from the very first performance, his interpretation was repeatedly accused of being too secular and too operatic. It is obvious that Verdi did not forsake his own personal experiences when he wrote the Requiem: the way he treated the vocal and orchestral texture resembled very much his stage works, especially Aida, which was composed only slightly earlier (although he also employed counterpoint devices here). He would not have been true to himself had he not exploited to a maximum all the dramatic elements included in the texts. The composer intentionally did not end his Requiem with the hopeful communion Lux eaterna but instead opted for a Libera me – a plea for mercy for a man tormented by fear and doubt.

Piotr Maculewicz