Verdi's Requiem

Dramatic, operatic, reverent, tragic, consoling, utterly beautiful: Verdi’s Requiem is all this, and more. Verdi’s Requiem was composed in memory of a friend, and partly in response to the death of a fellow composer. Ever since its first performance in Milan in 1874, this richly emotional work has been expressing grief and prayers for the dead. Over the last 100 years it has been performed in memory of nuclear disasters, acts of terrorism, and by inmates at Terezín in World War II. Initially criticised for being too ‘operatic’, it retains an extraordinary, almost overwhelming power to move audiences. Four superb singers take on the solo roles alongside the CBSO Chorus and led by Sir Mark Elder, a renowned interpreter of this astonishing, deeply expressive Requiem.