Skip to main content

Verdi's Requiem

A mighty Requiem

Wednesday

01.05.2024

19:30 — Victoria Hall

Series O

Opera & Voice

Grand Mécène

Thursday

02.05.2024

20:15 — Théâtre de Beaulieu

Series Lausanne

Opera & Voice

Grand Mécène

Friday

03.05.2024

19:30 — Victoria Hall

Series R

Series R+

Opera & Voice

programme

Myung-Whun Chung
conductor

Zarina Abaeva
soprano

Ekaterina Semenchuk
mezzo-soprano

René Barbera
tenor

Dmitry Belosselskiy
bass

Coro dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia
choir

Giuseppe Verdi
Messa da Requiem


the music

Married by the abbot, and future cardinal, Charles Mermillod in the modest church of Collonges-sous-Salève in 1859 at the gates of Geneva, Giuseppe Verdi was nonetheless a nonbeliever to the great regret of his wife, the singer Giuseppina Strepponi. Religion is of course present in several of his operas, but it was Rossini's death that was to trigger the creative process of his Requiem, created as a double homage to the deceased composer and to the poet Alessandro Manzoni, the immortal author of I Promessi sposi (The Betrothed). Much has been said about the theatrical and spectacular aspect of the work evoking the drama of man in the face of death. Freed from any libretto to respect, Verdi lets loose in this splendid work where his musical imagination ignites. His perfect knowledge of the human voice is put to the service of an intense and sincere expression in all its purity. The ensembles and the writing for the choir are particularly meticulous. Both grandiose and intimate, Verdi's Requiem is above all steeped in humanity.



OSR Live

video thumbnail

Johannes Brahms

Symphony No.3 in F major op. 90

Jonathan Nott

conductor

Recorded on 17 May 2018 at Teatro Colón de Buenos Aires, Cerrito 628

video thumbnail

JONATHAN NOTT

Conductor

Yvonne Naef

mezzo-soprano

György Ligeti
Poème symphonique, pour cent métronomes

Johann Sebastian Bach
Komm süsser Tod (orchestration by Leopold Stokowski)

Gustav Mahler
Kindertotenlieder, for mezzo-soprano and orchestra

Recorded on 21 January 2021 at Victoria Hall, Geneva