Requiem Mass by Verdi, sun 30 okt 2022, Frá (2022/2022), Hljómsveitarstjóri Claus Peter Flor, Auditorium Fondazione Cariplo, Milan, Italy

On May 22, 1873 Alessandro Manzoni died in his home in Milan, one of the most important authors of the Italian scene of the nineteenth century. From that death Giuseppe Verdi was deeply affected and distressed so much that he wrote, in a letter to Chiara Maffei (a mutual friend of Manzoni and Verdi) these words full of pain and anguish: "I was not present, but few will have been in this morning sadder and more moved than I was, although far away. Now it is all over! And with him the purest, the healthiest, the highest of our glories ends ”. A few days after writing these words, the great Italian composer offered to set a dead Mass to music to "show how much affection and veneration I have brought and carry to that great one who is no longer". Punctually, on the occasion of the first anniversary of Manzoni's death, the Requiem was performed. It was May 22, 1874 and with these words he was greeted on the pages of the Gazzetta Musicale Italiana: “One hundred and twenty choristers and one hundred orchestra professors will take part in this solemn ceremony, which will mark an epoch in the history of musical art.