Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem must be one of the most sublime masses to be written after Mozart’s (albeit unfinished) Requiem. Verdi first wrote the Libera me for a requiem mass in memory of Gioachino Rossini, which is supposed to have been the work of several composers. The project failed, but Verdi nevertheless used the already
written movement in a requiem mass for the late humanist and poet Alessandro Manzoni, whom he held in high esteem. Drama and energy, alternating with subtly refined melodies, accompany the text on the final judgement and intercessions for the soul’s salvation. The performance will be directed by the Italian conductor Roberto Abbado, who comes from a musical family – his father was the pianist and composer Marcello Abbado, and his uncle the conductor Claudio Abbado. Since 2018 he has been the musical director of the Verdi Festival in Parma. In 2008 he also received the Franco Abbiati Prize, which is awarded by the Italian National Association of Music Critics. Performing under his baton will be the Latvian with a dazzling, full and luxurious mezzosoprano, Elīna Garanča. She will be joined on stage this time by a soprano of the noble Bulgarian singing tradition, Krassimira Stoyanova, Ukrainian tenor Dmytro Popov, whose lyrically gentle and heroic voice makes him one of the world’s best opera singers, and the famous bass Riccardo Zanellato, who is well known to opera lovers who attend Salzburg Festival and the Milanese La Scala.