“Messa da Requiem” by G. Verdi for soloists, mixed choir and symphony orchestra was performed for the first time on the 22nd of May 1874 as a tribute to the memory of the composer G. Rossini and the writer A. Manzoni. Even today, after 150 years, this work is impressively relevant, because every day Ukraine lives through a requiem in the depths of its heart, paying tribute to the fallen defenders bowing their heads to the memory of the innocent victims.
From a stylistic point of view, the Requiem is close to the late operas of the composer, especially to the most grandiose opera in the history of music and creativity of the famous Giuseppe Verdi “Aida”. That is why the music is, first of all, of a secular nature: elaborate, difficult to perform, arias, colourful orchestral canvases close to symphonic poems. For the same reason, the "Messa da Requiem" is not performed during services, although it retains all the traditional parts of a funeral mass.
Verdi’s Requiem is a suffered thought, fear and at the same time faith and hope of a person. No matter what kind of dark emotions vortex the world around us plunges us into, we must believe in the light and in the harmonious plan of the Creator, where every event has its time, every criminal gets their retribution, and every innocent soul that has passed into another world leaves a bright memory. We believe in it and embody it in music!
The choir and orchestra of the theatre, student choir of the Odessa National A. V. Nezhdanova Music Academy (artistic directors – Galyna Shpak and Valery Regrut)