Verdi's Requiem

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Dag Hammarskjölds väg 3,
115 27 Stockholm

Verdi's Requiem

Description

Before Verdi composed his Requiem in 1874, he had hardly written anything but operas. These had made him famous and rich, and after his latest triumph with Aida in Milan in 1872, the 58-year-old composer publicly declared that he had done his bit as a composer and moved to his country estate in Busetto. Its long creative process, however, began many years earlier, in connection with Rossini's death in 1868. Verdi initiated an ambitious project to honour his beloved colleague: thirteen composers were each to set a part of a Messa per Rossini. He himself composed the concluding Libera me. The work was nevertheless not performed during Verdi's lifetime. Five years later Verdi took out his Libera me again: the movement became the starting point for a complete death mass of his own. In 1873 Alessandro Manzoni, one of Italy's most significant writers, died, and Verdi's Requiem was premiered on the first anniversary of Manzoni's death in the church of San Marco in Milan. Only three days later the work was given on the stage of La Scala. The concert hall feels like a more fitting setting for this grandiose work, which has jokingly been called an opera with a liturgical text. Friday's concert is broadcast live on Sveriges Radio P2 and with video on Berwaldhallen Play. Programme: Giuseppe Verdi: Requiem