The Royal Danish Orchestra Performs Verdi's Requiem With Bertrand de Billy

The Royal Danish Orchestra celebrates its 575th anniversary this season. The orchestra marks the occasion with four symphonic concerts with music stemming from the various art forms that their repertoire spans. 

The anniversary celebration opens with Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem, which could hardly resemble an opera more without actually being one. The oratorio requires large, dramatic voices, a grand Verdi orchestra and the entire range of human emotions. Verdi’s masterpiece is performed with an international quartet of soloists, the Royal Danish Orchestra, the Royal Danish Opera Chorus and Malmö Opera Chorus with French conductor Bertrand de Billy at the helm.

Upon Rossini’s death in 1868, Verdi attempted to convince colleagues to jointly compose a tribute requiem. Verdi wrote a Libera me movement, but the work never came to fruition. When Italy’s national poet Manzoni passed away five years later, a deeply moved Verdi revisited the idea of composing a grand requiem based on Roman Catholic liturgy. 

A master of opera, Verdi now delved into a genre hitherto unknown to him. The music is nevertheless as grand and atmospheric as his opera scores and full of passion, anger, sorrow, remorse and acceptance – all emotions are in play and eventually redeemed. The dramatic qualities of the work, not least the gusty Dies irae movement, have been adapted to several movies, from The Simple-Minded Murderer to Mad Max: Fury Road.

Verdi’s Requiem is performed in Latin with Danish supertitles.

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