ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
PHILIPPE HERREWEGHE
*Giuseppe VERDI* (1813-1901):
Messa da Requiem
Camilla Nylund _sopraan_
Karen Cargill _alt_
Bryan Hymel _tenor_
Mikhaïl Petrenko _bas_
*Collegium Vocale Gent*
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Barely a month before the premiere of his _Messa da Requiem_, on 22 May 1873 in San Marco in Milan, Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) wrote to his publisher Ricordi: ‘_You understand better than I myself that this mass must not be sung like an opera, and thus that the phrasing and dynamics that may be fine in a theatre won’t satisfy me at all, not at all._’ Clear words from a true opera composer who had written a requiem to honour his dead friend, the writer Alessandro Manzoni. It is transcendent, unique within his oeuvre and, according to Johannes Brahms, the work of a true genius.