Standing between sacred melodrama and sacred music in the strictest sense, Verdi’s Messa da Requiem reflects the spirituality of a composer who, despite his firmly anticlerical views and rational nature, which left little room for mysticism, never shied away from confronting the transcendent dimension of human existence. Throughout his operatic output, one finds a tension between the sacred and the profane, revealing a man grappling with life’s great existential questions, while his deepest convictions remain an enigma.

A sumptuous, monumental composition, the Messa da Requiem took shape amid the growing success of Aida, at a time when Verdi had become an increasingly dominant figure in the musical life of a united Italy. All that seemed to be missing from his achievements was the recognition that would come with a major sacred work. The opportunity arose with the death of Alessandro Manzoni, a writer Verdi had long revered. The loss affected him so profoundly that he immediately wrote to his publisher, Ricordi:

“I too would like to demonstrate the affection and veneration I have felt, and continue to feel, for that great man who is no longer with us, and whom Milan has honoured so fittingly. I would like to set a Requiem Mass to music, to be performed next year on the anniversary of his death. The Mass would be on a fairly large scale, requiring, in addition to a large orchestra and chorus, four or five principal singers, though I cannot specify them at present.”

Exactly one year after Manzoni’s death, on 22 May 1874, the Messa da Requiem was performed at the Church of San Marco in Milan, offered to the citizens in memory of the great poet and novelist. From that moment on, Verdi was elevated from the status of a great composer to that of a monument of Italian culture.

Yet the Requiem pays tribute to Manzoni in its dedication, not in its spiritual outlook. Its music is terrible in its intensity and profound in its sorrow. There is no comforting faith in Divine Providence here, but rather the doubts of a vulnerable human being, an awareness of life’s loneliness, and the uncertainty and anguish of the dying. Only in moments of heartbreaking tenderness does the music seem to let in a glimmer of light. Perhaps it is through the power of human feeling that Verdi finds the few signs of consolation that life itself seems so persistently to deny.

Giuseppe Martini