Messa da Requiem (Verdi)

Overview

Giuseppe Verdi's setting of the Latin funeral Mass for four soloists, double chorus and orchestra, written in memory of the writer Alessandro Manzoni (died 22 May 1873) and therefore also called the "Manzoni Requiem". It was first performed in the church of San Marco, Milan, on 22 May 1874, the first anniversary of Manzoni's death, with Verdi conducting; a repeat followed at La Scala on 25 May. It then travelled to Paris, where it received seven performances at the Opéra-Comique. Its movements include the Dies irae sequence with the Lacrymosa and the closing Agnus Dei. (Source: Wikipedia, "Messa da Requiem", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messa_da_Requiem.)

The full score is public domain; IMSLP links the first Ricordi edition.

Marie and this work

The Requiem is the one piece of sacred music that runs through Marie's diary for three years, first as a Paris event and then as her own repertoire.

• Paris, June 1874. On 8 June 1874 (020.0176) her mother takes a box at 120 francs for "la Messe de requiem en mémoire de Manzoni, de G. Verdi". The next day (020.0182, 020.0184) Marie calls it "très beau, extrêmement beau, admirable" but insists a work so serious cannot be judged at a first hearing, and hopes she may one day boast of having heard it "la première fois à Paris". On 13 June (020.0233) she is in another box for a further performance and says "le requiem est trop beau pour qu'on ne l'écoute pas".
• Autumn 1874. She buys the score (024.0251, 6 Oct) but her father finds it "lugubre" and stops her from reading it at the piano; on 14 Oct (024.0342) she sings from it "dont je suis folle".
• Rome, spring 1876. She sings the Requiem in the Campagna (055.0215, 6 Mar) and, on 28 March, tells how for two weeks she sang pieces from it with the presentiment that someone must die (056.0079); the passage quotes the Latin of the Lacrymosa (056.0084, 056.0087; the footnote there identifies it as Verdi). On 15 May she sings "des morceaux de messe funèbre" at Antonelli to tease him (060.0252).
• Russia, 1876. Asked to sing the Agnus Dei "de Verdi", both soprano and contralto parts, one after the other (064.0022, 20 July). On 23 Aug (065.0317) she tries her returning voice with the Lacrymosa of the "messe funèbre, comme à Rome".
• Naples, 1877. After a concert of sacred music she writes that she adores the music but that "La Messe" de Verdi "m'émeut, m'empoigne davantage" (069.0556, 27 Mar).

The Naples programme of 25 March 1877 (069.0519) lists a Mozart Lacrimosa from the Requiem; that is a different work, and Marie's 065.0317 Lacrymosa is not certain to be Verdi's (the LAN note there hedges between Mozart and Verdi), though "comme à Rome" points to the Verdi pieces she sang in 1876.

Sources

• Wikipedia, "Messa da Requiem": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messa_da_Requiem
• IMSLP, "Requiem (Verdi, Giuseppe)".
• Diary paragraphs as cited above.

Supersedes the stub `people/mentioned/LA_MESSE_DE_VERDI.md`.