The Fire and Fury of Verdi's Requiem

Orchestra Wellington’s music director Marc Taddei is conducting Verdi’s magnificent Requiem.

MEDIA RELEASE

16 August 2018

www.orchestrawellington.co.nz

Headline: Michael Fowler Centre to Resound with the Fire and Fury of Verdi’s Requiem

Orchestra Wellington and the Orpheus Choir are joining forces to perform one of the most thrilling pieces of music you’re ever likely to hear.

Verdi’s mighty Requiem, his mass for the dead, is guaranteed to move anyone with even the slightest pulse.

The musical depiction of the end of days, with offstage trumpets and thunderous hits from the orchestra’s bass drum, will leave you breathless.

It’s more of an opera than a piece of church music, and if you think you don’t know it, just put “Dies Irae” into any internet search engine, and you’ll soon see it’s the soundtrack to dozens of adverts, sports trailers and movies, the most recent being Taika Waititi’s “Hunt for the Wilderpeople”.

But between the drama passages, Verdi has written life-affirming music of the utmost tenderness.

Conductor Marc Taddei has assembled a world-class cast of soloists for the performance on September 8th at the Michael Fowler Centre.

Mexican tenor Diego Torre sang at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 2009 and 2010. Antoinette Halloran is one of Australia’s most accomplished sopranos.

Fellow Aussie mezzo soprano Deborah Humble has performed Das Rheingold at the Hamburg Staatsoper for seven straight years, while Baritone James Clayton has been one of NZ Opera’s most outstanding singers.

“The Verdi Requiem is an absolutely remarkable piece of music that glorifies and extends the whole sense of the human experience,” says Orchestra Wellington’s music director, Marc Taddei.

Yet this masterpiece was almost scrapped before it reached an audience. It was originally part of a collaboration of composers, to mourn the death of fellow Italian Maestro, Rossini, but the project fell apart at the last minute.

But Verdi, wasn’t ready to give up on his contribution to the piece, and it eventually formed the basis of the complete Requiem we know and love today, as one of the most performed pieces of church music in the repertoire.

Orchestra Wellington presents REQUIEM

Saturday 8th September, 7.30pm

Michael Fowler Centre

Giuseppe Verdi – Requiem

Marc Taddei, Conductor

Orchestra Wellington

Orpheus Choir of Wellington

Antoinette Halloran, Soprano

Deborah Humble, Mezzo Soprano

Diego Torre, Tenor

James Clayton, Baritone

/ENDS