Program Notes
GIUSEPPE VERDI
REQUIEM MASS, IN MEMORY OF
ALESSANDRO MANZONI
Duration: ca. 84 minutes
Overview
Verdi was, above all, a patriot. From his earliest years, he was
an ardent supporter of the Risorgimento — the “resurgence”
of ancient national pride — to free Italy from foreign
domination and unify it under a single, native rule. Though
he never personally manned the barricades, he became,
through his music, one of the most illustrious embodiments
of the Italian national spirit.
Almost all of Verdi’s early operas ran afoul of the censors
because of the political implications of their plots. In 19thcentury
Europe, no one doubted that music and drama
could inspire strong emotions and, perhaps, even action.
The political arbiters were ever wary about allowing ideas
of insurrection or royal fallibility to escape from the stage
into the public consciousness. One such idea that did slip
past their suspicious examination, however, was contained
in Verdi’s Nabucco of 1842. The chorus of longing for their
lost homeland sung in that opera by the Israelites captive in
Babylon, Va, pensiero, sull’ali dorate (“Fly, thoughts, on wings
of gold”), was quickly adopted by the Risorgimento as an
anthem of struggle for Italy’s freedom. So great and enduring
was the fame of this lovely music that it was sung by the
crowds that lined the streets for Verdi’s funeral procession
almost six decades later.
During the insurrections of 1848, the name VERDI became
a rallying cry for the nationalists, and was scrawled across
walls and carried on signs. Beside being a tribute to their
beloved composer, the letters of his name were also an
acrostic for “Vittorio Emanuele, Re d’Italia,” the Duke of
Savoy whom the nationalists were fighting to bring to power
as “King of Italy.” When Cavour called the first parliamentary
session of the newly united Italy in 1859, Verdi was elected
as the representative from Busseto. Though reluctant to
enter the political arena, he was sufficiently patriotic and
cognizant of his standing with his countrymen to accept the
nomination.
With his love of country and constant efforts to promote
Italian culture, Verdi viewed the death of Rossini in Paris
on November 13, 1868 as a national tragedy. He felt that a
THE FLORIDA OR 38 CHESTRA | 2017-2018
musical memorial should be erected to Rossini — not as
a religious expedient to usher his soul into heaven, or as
an expression of personal grief (the two were never close
friends), but rather as an act of patriotism. One of the great
Italians was gone, and Verdi believed the nation should
properly mourn his passing.
Verdi proposed the composition of a composite Requiem
Mass for Rossini to which the leading Italian composers
would contribute. (“No foreign hands!” he insisted.) The
performance was to take place on the first anniversary
of Rossini’s death. Following Verdi’s instructions, the
composers were chosen by lot by the publisher Giulio
Ricordi, and each was assigned a section of the work. The
closing Libera me fell to Verdi. However, preparations for the
Rossini Mass foundered on Verdi’s proposal that all those
involved offer their services free of charge. The twelve other
composers agreed to this plan, and the Mass was actually
written, but the performers could not be secured. The
project was cancelled, and the manuscripts were returned
to their composers, whose reputations faded along with
the prospects for the memorial Mass — Platania, Mabellini
and Cagnoni, for example, are unknown today even in Italy.
Verdi’s Libera me was filed away and forgotten, as were the
plans for the Rossini Requiem.
In 1871, Alberto Mazzucato, a friend of Verdi and a composition
teacher at the Milan Conservatory, discovered the Libera me
manuscript in Ricordi’s vaults. He was enraptured with its
beauty, and wrote to its creator urging him to complete the
entire work. Verdi responded, “Your words nearly prompted
me to compose the whole Mass at some later date.... Think
what a disastrous result your praise could have had!” He
continued that to add yet another Requiem to the “many,
many” that existed was “useless.” Soon, however, he was to
find a use for such a work, and give in to the temptation to
take up his Libera me once again.
* * *
Alessandro Manzoni was one of the dominant figures of 19thcentury
Italy. His poems, plays and novels spoke directly
to the Italian soul as it quested for freedom and national
identity. His most famous work was the novel I promessi
sposi (“The Betrothed”), which was considered not only the
greatest Italian prose piece of the time, but also, as William
Weaver noted in his study of Verdi, “a kind of stylebook for
the country, which ... was linguistically chaotic.” Manzoni