Easter Concert: Verdi's Requiem

Concerto de Páscoa: Requiem de Verdi

Live music 20€

Thursday 25 March · 20:00

Easter concert featuring Verdi's monumental Requiem, an operatic work that challenges the constraints of the genre.

Giuseppe Verdi's Messa da Requiem is one of the most monumental works written in the genre, in its scope and musical writing, challenging some of the constraints usually associated with this type of repertoire. The idea of composing a Requiem Mass arose from a historical motivation and personal admiration, despite previous attempts. After the death of writer Alessandro Manzoni in 1873, a figure Verdi greatly admired for his qualities as a novelist and humanist, and particularly for his literary contribution to the Risorgimento movement, the composer proposed the composition of a Messa da Requiem, an idea well received by the Mayor of Milan. Verdi threw himself into composing the work with the intention of premiering it on the first anniversary of Manzoni's death, on 22 May 1874. The premiere took place on that date at the Church of San Marco in Milan, under his baton and with a cast of renowned opera singers. The operatic language marks Verdi's approach to the genre, and the work was later presented in several opera houses. A few days after the premiere, it was performed at La Scala in Milan. Throughout the sections of the work, Verdi uses different expressive resources that mark inspired melodies, dramatic and tense moments, passing through almost ethereal sonorities, in a breathtaking musical writing.