Verdi: Requiem -  Anja Harteros, Elina Garanca, Jonas Kaufmann, René Pape (Blu-ray)
Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Release Date: September 3, 2013
Conductor: Daniel Barenboim
Artists:
Jonas Kaufmann
Anja Harteros
Elina Garanca
René Pape
Orchestra: Orchestra of La Scala
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Language: Latin
Subtitles: English, French, German
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)

Led by Daniel Barenboim, this recording of Verdi's Requiem features a superb quartet of soloists: Jonas Kaufmann, Anja Harteros, Elina Garanca, and René Pape.

“If you were to devise a dream casting for this most theatrical of sacred masterpieces you might well come up with Anja Harteros, Elina Garanca , Jonas Kaufmann and René Pape, plus the Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala, Milan, under their current maestro, Daniel Barenboim... Kaufmann's first entry was like an erupting volcano. Garanca was as mesmerizing, floating creamy legatos while mustering a thrilling chest voice that I never thought she possessed. Harteros, looking like a distressed pre-Raphaelite beauty, turned the final movement into the most sublime death scene never to appear in an opera. And that incredible chorus, with their barrel-voiced basses and wonderfully hammy rolled consonants and gasped aspirates, hurled out the apocalyptic moments as if determined to blast the roof off.” – The Times

“Even without a fully Italianate instrument, Kaufmann's honeyed, warm tone makes him exceptional in Verdi.” – The Telegraph

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