Verdi Requiem BBC Proms

When Verdi conducted his Requiem's first performance in 1874,

women were not officially allowed to sing in Milan's San Marco church,

so the female choristers hid behind funereal veils.

Tonight at the Royal Albert Hall 140-odd years later,

Verdi's Requiem is a work with heart and soul-on-sleeve sincerity that

struck its first listeners immediately, and which a composer

as different from Giuseppe Verdi as Johannes Brahms said "could only

It is a fearless and multifaceted meditation on human mortality,

an epic experience we're about to have here at the Royal Albert Hall

From the desperation of grief through the violent horror

of the day of judgement and the serenity of redemption

to an uneasy tranquillity right at the very end.

A public statement of personal mourning, religious in atmosphere

yet abundantly passionate, the Requiem was written by Verdi

to mark the first anniversary of the death of the Italian literary

hero Alessandro Manzoni, whose work had deeply affected

The result is a journey of the soul in grief that has proved to be

a touchstone for audiences everywhere.

It is music whose generosity of spirit reaches out to us in every

bar of the seven sections traversing the human drama of death.

And it was precisely this directness of emotional address that shocked

But the masses of Mozart and Haydn, the oratorios of Handel,

the cantatas of Bach ? these and many, many others had been

using operatic music to tell religious stories for centuries.

Verdi's instincts as the 19th century's greatest Italian opera

composer are indeed evident in the storytelling flair he brings

It's defiantly operatic in the sense that he turns

each movement into a spiritual drama.

But this is a vastly different conception from, say,

Verdi uses all of his compositional powers as a severe, sacred

technician, as well as a man of the theatre, to make the Requiem

pierce our hearts ? which it does, unfailingly.

Tonight the Requiem is performed on instruments of the period

by The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the BBC

Conductor Marin Alsop told me why the piece is such an important part

I'm of the opinion ? as are so many ? that it's definitely one

You don't give a deep costumes! That this way I look at it! The writing

for the chorus for the soloists is complete, it explores every

dimension of their voice. Every time I come to this, I think, I am so

glad I'm not a singer and I wish I had thought of this! How do you

think of the journey, what you have to create with his huge forces? I

was speaking to the choir, we have this fabulous 300 strong choir

between the ages of 14 and 21 and I was trying to explain, I said, you

are on the other side of thinking about dying but this is your

opportunity to really sell the idea of death as something that is

appealing! Not to be glib about this, but this is a piece about the

life cycle. And so it is not that it is trying to make a case for dying,

but it is making a case for the enormity of life. And the vastness

of experience that we can have. Working with Dukes -- with the

orchestra, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, that corresponds

to the late 19th century, has that thrown up different colours as

opposed to working with different orchestras? I love working with The

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, it is a different

aesthetic, different experience, he signed wall is different, I think it

suits the young voices we have in the choir, it is more immediate

sounding, more open, it is not a hugely sustained signed. And with

the young voices, that is also what we have, the brightness and

lightness of being so this much is very well. It feels like a piece

that is made, in terms of the scale, the other stage trumpets, it uses

the space? Verdi uses four trumpet other stage, I asked if we can't

have eight of them and we had eight trumpets, placing them in the

different strumpets. Hopefully, if you are in the middle of the

audience, you have this feeling that the trumpets, which are definitely

the day of judgment, they are coming from all directions and you don't

know where it is. It is extremely dramatic. We might have faced

visions of death or that experience but you feel uplifted? It is both a

tribute, an introspective, it is a screen for terror. But above all

else, it is the incredible tenderness and fragility of life

which we experience in this beautiful moments. If you are

everybody think... Verdi's Requiem has

a special connection It was here that the mass

was unveiled to British audiences in May 1875,

just a year after It was part of a mini-European tour

and Verdi himself was conducting. It is still died tonight for the

orchestra, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The Royal Albert

Hall was just in its infancy, only opened since 1871.

Those early performances in the rest of Europe and the New World, they

were hugely successful. But some pretty off-the-wall

productions outraged Verdi, including a version accompanied

by four pianos and another APPLAUSE

Here comes Marin Alsop, conducting The Orchestra of the Age of

Enlightenment with the soloists. Dimitri Pittas and the massed ranks

of the BBC Proms Youth Choir. Verdi's Requiem at the Proms...

APPLAUSE # Et tibi reddetur

votum in Jerusalem # Et profondo lacu;

libera eas de ore leonis # Quam olim Abrahae

promisisti et semini ejus # Hostias et preces tibi,

Domine, laudis offerimus # Tu suscipe pro animabus illis,

quarum hodie memoriam facimus # Fac eas, Domine, de

morte transire ad vitam # Quam olim Abrahae

promisisti et semini ejus # Libera animas omnium fidelum

defunctorum de poenis inferni # Pleni sunt coeli

et terra gloria tua # Benedictus qui venit

in nomini Domini # Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata

mundi, dona eis requiem sempiternam # Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata

mundi, dona eis requiem sempiternam # Cum sanctis tuis in

aeternam; quia pius es # Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,

# Cum sanctis tuis in aeternam; quia pius es

# Cum sanctis tuis in aeternam; quia pius es

# Cum sanctis tuis in aeternam

# Cum sanctis tuis in aeternam

# Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna in die illa tremenda

# Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna in die illa tremenda

# Dum veneris judicare saeclum per ignem

# Tremens factus sum ego et timeo, dum discussio venerit atque

# Ventura irae, quando coeli movendi sunt et terra

# Tremens factus sum ego et timeo, dum discussio venerit atque

# Dies irae, dies illa calamitatis et miseriae; dies

# Dies irae, dies illa calamitatis et miseriae; dies

# Requiem aeternam, dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis

# Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna in die illa tremenda

# Libera me, Domine, quando coeli movendi sunt et terra

# Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna in die illa tremenda

# Libera me, Domine, quando coeli movendi sunt et terra

# Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna in die illa tremenda

# Libera me, Domine, quando coeli movendi sunt et terra

# Dum veneris judicare saeclum per ignem

# Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna in die illa tremenda

# Libera me, Domine, quando coeli movendi sunt et terra

# Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna in die illa tremenda

# Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna in die illa tremenda

# Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna in die illa tremenda

# Dum veneris judicare saeclum per ignem

# Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna in die illa tremenda

A whispered prayer from the soprano soloist and chorus

Here BBC Proms Youth Choir. Marin Alsop conducted 96 macro Andy BBC

Proms Youth Choir, Tamara Wilson, the mezzo soprano Alisa Kolosova and

the tenor Dimitri Pittas Russ and Morris Robinson the bass. The

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment led by Kati

Debretzeni. Wild applause for Morris Robinson. My goodness, what an easy

conclusion that is to the Requiem. Fearlessly flinging that

deliverance, that Libera Me, that is a resounding question that they are

plodding. Marin Alsop are plodding The Orchestra of the Age of

Enlightenment Andy BBC Proms Youth Choir. Marin Alsop said that is the

best opera that Verdi ever wrote but surely the most honest spiritual,

human experience of his career as well. It that way for me tonight.

Selling the idea of how courageous those singers, between 14 and 21,

gave themselves to the terrifying visions of the music of Verdi.

APPLAUSE Huge applause for the BBC Proms

Youth Choir, singer is being drawn from the city of Birmingham youth

chorus and the Youth Choir Wales and the Aberdeenshire require. And the

Birmingham voices. And singers from the BBC Ten Pieces Choir. Listen to

this! Even better than the ovation that Verdi got himself in 1875.

APPLAUSE Along with the soloists, the chorus

master, Simon from the BBC Proms Youth Choir. Simon Halsey. Applause

for all of the soloists. Alisa Kolosova, there. The mezzo soprano.

Listen to that applause! APPLAUSE

The wildest applause of the night for the BBC Proms Youth Choir and

quite right. This is an extraordinary ovation for the steep,

spiritual and uplifting experience. So that wraps it up for tonight and,

indeed, for the BBC Proms It's been a sumptuous

and exhilarating musical experience for us ? and hope it has been

for you, too. Of course it's not the last word

for the Proms on BBC television. The grand finale is tomorrow night

on BBC Two from 7.15pm Be sure to join Katie Derham

for The Last Night of the Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra

and Chorus and the BBC Singers, conducted by Sakari Oramo

with Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez and so,

so much more. But for now, this is

Tom Service at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall -

after a thundering Dies Irae -