Verdi: Messa da Requiem (Concert DVD)

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Artists: Eleonora Buratto, Anita Rachvelishvili, Giorgio Berrugi, Roberto Tagliavini, Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, Coro del Teatro Regio di Parma
Conductor: Roberto Abbado
Director: Marco Scalfi
Format: NTSC
Language: Italian
Subtitles: Italian, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean
Region: All Regions
Number of Discs: 1
Studio: Dynamic
DVD Release Date: April 16, 2021
Run Time: 90 minutes

Giuseppi Verdi’s Messa da Requiem arose out of the composer’s admiration for the influential poet and novelist Alessandro Manzoni, and as a response to the lack of appreciation shown to the writer in the press after his death in 1873. The extraordinary character of Verdi’s Requiem confronts us with unanswerable questions, from the stormy and terrifying "Dies irae," to consolatory and touching lyrical oases in which Verdi communicates liturgical texts in the most profound and expressive ways possible.

This Teatro Regio di Parma production, which was performed open-air at the Parco Ducale of Parma, was dedicated to the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic and all the health workers engaged in the emergency. The mayor of Parma introduces the performance with a brief and touching speech and a minute’s silence.

Conductor Roberto Abbado declared in an interview: “I think that Verdi felt the need to compose a sacred work to deal with some themes that, as he got older, he felt very strongly about.... Verdi is not afraid to show that he fears death, and therefore his approach is extremely humble and human, showing some of the frailties we all have. How does the Messa da Requiem end? It ends, in my opinion, with a huge question mark. Basically, I believe, Verdi, like many of us, cannot answer these questions. I, myself, cannot answer them.”

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