Symphony Soundbites: June 2014

Our season concludes with one of the most popular and spectacular choral/orchestral works ever composed, the 1874 Requiem of Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901). The North Shore Choral Society will supply about 150 singers, and the Evanston Symphony will be ­augmented by four extra off-stage trumpets (plus four trumpets in the ESO itself) and a very important bass drum. And of course Verdi calls for four vocal soloists with full operatic qualities and vocal ranges.

The Requiem has somewhat flippantly been called “Verdi’s greatest opera,” and its theatrical and melodic qualities lend some credence to this description. However, it is ­written within the form of the Latin mass for the Dead, and thus that form must be respected in performance. What this means for the audience is that the 90 minute work is ­presented as a whole without an intermission, and that the first point at which latecomers may be admitted is at the end of the Dies Irae, about 50 minutes into the piece. So please do not be late!

This Requiem is sometimes referred to as the “Manzoni Requiem,” because Verdi composed it in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, his fellow Italian patriot and the author of one of the greatest novels ever written in Italian — I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed). However, Verdi had actually composed one movement of a requiem in memory of Rossini in 1868, but this requiem was not performed. Verdi took his Libera me from the Rossini Requiem and revised it extensively for the Manzoni Requiem, for which it serves as the dramatic finale for solo soprano and chorus.

Verdi composed six new movements to precede the Libera me: the Kyrie, Dies Irae, Offertorio, Sanctus, Anus Dei, and Lux aeterna, of which the Dies Irae is by far the longest. Each of the four vocal soloists has an important solo ­during the piece, and all of them unite in various duets, trios and quartets, both with and without the chorus. The chorus has its moment in the brassy Sanctus, which does not feature the soloists. There are only a few passages which unite all four soloists plus the complete chorus, the most striking of which is the Lacrymosa, which uses music which Verdi had cut from his 1867 opera Don Carlo. The opera which ­immediately preceded the Requiem was Aida (1871), and it is noteworthy that Verdi used the Aida and Amneris from the premiere of Aida as his soprano and mezzo-soprano for the Requiem. He also used the tenor and bass from Aida for later performances of the Requiem, showing that the “Verdi’s greatest opera” description of the Requiem may be supportable.

—David Ellis