Dudamel Conducts Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem Mass
Magnificent Performance Receives Standing Ovation
Nov 7, 2009
Giuseppe Verdi completed his first opera Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio in 1838 at age 25. After moving to Milan, Italy, the score was accepted for performance at La Scala where it was received with satisfactory success. Verdi was soon contracted to write more operas for La Scala including Un giorno di regno (1840), Nabucco (1842), I Lombard all prima Crociata (1843), all of which received considerable success and acclaim.
However, it was Rigoletto, which premiered in Venice in 1851, that gave Verdi his first great triumph. II Travatore and La Traviata followed, both captivating world audiences and giving further credibility to Verdi’s prominence as a composer of great operas. Aida, which premiered Christmas Eve in 1871 became a world event and is still one of the most famous operas in the world.
Requiem Masses
The Requiem Mass, with its dramatic Sequence Dies Irae, touched the minds and hearts of the Romantic composers; Mozart, Berlioz, and Brahms also wrote Requiem Masses. Carrying the traditions of Italian operas represented by Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti, Giuseppe Verdi conceived the idea of honoring Rossini after his death in 1868 with a collectively composed Requiem Mass that required several composers to contribute a different movement. Verdi completed Libera me, his section of the Requiem, between 1868- 1869.
The Manzoni Requiem
The Manzoni Requiem premiered May 22, 1874 at St. Mark’s in Milan after which it moved to La Scala for three successful performances and then on to Paris, London, and Vienna where it received equal acclaim. Now known as Requiem, the 90-minute work is structured in seven movements: Requiem, Kyrie; Dies irae; Offertorio; Sanctus; Agnus Dei; Lux aeterna; Libera me. The Libera me is the last section of the 1868 collective Mass for the dead intended to commemorate the death of Rossini 1868.
Gustavo Dudamel, Conductor; Performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Leah Crocetto, Ekaterina Gubanova, David Lomeli, John Relyea
The dynamic maestro Gustavo Dudamel conducted the intricate 90 minute score from memory! Leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, 111-members of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and four soloists – soprano Leah Crocetto, mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova, tenor David Lomeli, and bass John Relyea, Gustavo Dudamel successfully achieved inspired performances from every musician. His profound genius, dramatic gestures, and expressive face gave rich cues that encouraged the talented musicians to reach deeper into the spirituality and profundity of Verdi’s great work.
Requiem and Kyrie
Verdi’s Requiem is emotional and profound. The first movement opened in impeccable silence with Dudamel extending the silence until an audience member’s cough had subsided. The Requiem’s solemnity is conveyed through the opening cello line, a muted descending phrase before the strings harmonize and the chorus murmured “Requiem” on a single tone. With the Master Chorale sopranos sobbing and the strings singing consolation, this movement was deeply moving.
Dies irae
The second movement, Dies irae, was filled with tumultuous booming and blasts by the bass drum and the brass depicting the “day of wrath.” With his baton and gestures indicating the force and intensity of doomsday, Dudamel, exact and passionate, turned to conduct the distant trumpets at the top of the concert hall before turning back to conduct the orchestra and Master Chorale whose music and voices were bursting forth in a trajectory of metaphoric wails that depicted confessions, fear and pleas for mercy. This was a very powerful and very intense sonic event that achieved its intended purpose.
Offertorio, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, Lux Aeterna, Libera me
The subsequent four movements included the Offertorio, the joyous, fugal Sanctus, the Agnus Dei, the Lux aeterna and the poignant Libera me. The final movement brings a personal emphasis to the Mass with the Requiem text fulfilling the ecclesiastical requirement of praying for the dead. In the Libera me, the fear of the “last enemy” that is latent in all of us is brought to consciousness: “Deliver me, Lord, from eternal death…Deliver me.”
Standing Ovations and Triple Curtain Calls
The music ended in devout silence as Maestro Dudamel slowly and reverently lowered his baton. There were no coughs, no cell phones, only awestruck silence before the audience erupted into a 10 minute standing ovation. Taking their bows, the Maestro and the guest soloists – Crocetto, Gubanova, Lomeli, and Relyea - left the stage before returning a second and third time in response to the thunderous applause, and to take bows with the orchestra and Master Chorale.
Verdi’s miraculous merging of religiosity and powerful operatic lyricism makes his Requiem a masterpiece. His genius for dramatic, lyric, and tragic music as well as for beauty and spirituality is inherent in this affecting work. For more information on the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, please visit www.laphil.org.
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