Verdi Requiem

Featured Program

Juraj Valčuha, conductor Ana María Martínez, soprano Marina Prudenskaya, mezzo-soprano Jonathan Tetelman, tenor Dmitry Belosselskiy, bass Houston Symphony Chorus Allen Hightower, director

1:23 VERDI – Requiem I. Requiem: Andante II. Dies Irae: Allegro agitato III. Offertorio: Andante mosso IV. Sanctus: Allegro V. Agnus Dei: Andante VI. Lux aeterna: Allegro moderato VII. Libera me, Domine: Moderato

September 16, 2022

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Giuseppe Verdi Jones Hall

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This weekend, Juraj Valčuha opens the 2022–23 Classical Series with his first concerts as the Houston Symphony’s new music director. For this special occasion, Juraj has chosen Verdi’s Requiem, a monumental masterpiece for chorus, orchestra, and vocal soloists. When considering repertoire for these momentous performances, it was important to him to find a piece that would have everyone participating on stage: the full complement of the Houston Symphony Chorus and the orchestra. These concerts are also the Chorus’s first performances under the leadership of distinguished new director Dr. Allen Hightower, who also serves as director of choral studies at the University of North Texas. Verdi’s Requiem is a dramatic work, the most operatic of all requiems. Juraj’s selection of this piece draws a natural connection between his most recent musical home, the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Italy, and his new musical home, Houston.

On November 13, 1868, Gioacchino Rossini, composer of The Barber of Seville, William Tell, and many other classic operas, passed away. Upon receiving the news, Giuseppe Verdi was seized by patriotic fervor: he published an open letter calling upon “the most distinguished Italian composers [...] to compose a Requiem Mass,” a choral work based on traditional texts for Catholic funerals and memorial services, “to be performed on the anniversary of [Rossini’s] death.” Idealistically, Verdi demanded that the composers and performers donate their services, that the piece be performed only at a particular church in Bologna, and that after the premiere the score “should be sealed and placed in the archives [...] from which it should never be taken.”

Remarkably, a committee was formed and composers were found to compose this composite Requiem. Verdi wrote the Libera me (the finale), and the rest was dutifully composed by others. The project only foundered when Bologna’s opera house refused to allow its musicians to participate

Giuseppe Verdi

Part of the Gold Classics by

The Cullen Foundation Maestro’s Fund

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The Classical Season is endowed by The Wortham Foundation, Inc., in memory of Gus S. and Lyndall F. Wortham (Verdi almost got the rest of his wish, however: the score was indeed “sealed and placed in the archives” until its first performance in 1988).

In 1871, Alberto Mazzucato, a professor at the Milan conservatory, wrote to Verdi after studying his unpublished Libera me. He found within it “the most beautiful, the greatest, and most colossally poetic page that can be imagined,” to which Verdi responded, “...those words of yours would almost have instilled in me the desire to finish, later, the entire Mass [...]” But, thinking of the many famous Requiems by Mozart, Cherubini, Berlioz, and others, Verdi concluded, “There are so many, many Requiem Masses!!! It is useless to add one more.”

Still, the idea of composing a complete Requiem lingered in Verdi’s mind. In April 1873, he requested the return of his Libera me manuscript. The following month, another of his cultural heroes passed away: the novelist Alessandro Manzoni. Thanks to this twist of fate, Verdi’s Requiem would officially commemorate Manzoni rather than Rossini. Verdi completed it in April 1874, and the premiere took place at the church of San Marco in Milan on the anniversary of Manzoni’s death. At Verdi’s insistence, the Archbishop granted special permission for women singers to perform in the church, provided they wore black veils.

The initial reception was enthusiastic, with one notable exception; the German conductor Hans von Bülow published a damning review titled “Opera in Church Clothing,” arguing that the supposedly profane, operatic style of Verdi’s Requiem was unsuitable for sacred music. In an age when religious music tended to be restrained, perhaps what shocked Bülow and some others as inappropriate was not so much the Requiem’s resemblance to opera as its extreme emotions. In The Romantic Generation, scholar Charles Rosen acutely observed, “[...] nineteenthcentury religious forms tended to induce timidity in composers [...] as if the nobility of the enterprise made their most obvious talents unworthy.” The “one oasis,” he notes, was “the requiem. [...] Perhaps the terror of dying was the only part of religion that easily captured the imagination.”

Whatever Verdi’s motives, his Requiem encompases grief, despair, hope, and joy in their rawest forms. Musically, its seven movements can be divided into two groups: the Requiem e Kyrie and Dies irae form the first; and the Offertorio, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, Lux aeterna, and Libera me form the second. The opening Requiem is slow and meditative, drawing listeners into a deep gloom. The Kyrie begins when the soloists enter, led by the tenor.

We then launch into the fires of the Dies irae, the longest and weightiest part of the Requiem. The text is a 13th-century poem describing the apocalypse according to Christian eschatology. This fearsome music

Giuseppe Verdi

Please view p.6 for his bio Grammy Award winner Ana María Martínez is considered to be one of the foremost sopranos of her time. In addition to an international career that spans the world’s most important opera houses and concert halls, she continues to explore her role as a leader in the industry and as an advocate and educator to the next generation of musicians. To that end, in 2019, she joined Houston Grand Opera as its first artistic advisor. Following a two-year appointment as artist-inresidence at The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, in July

reappears twice in the Dies irae: once partially (omitting the pounding opening) and once completely. The first reappearance divides the Dies irae into two halves. In the first half, the chorus and soloists narrate harrowing images of Judgment Day; in the second, the soloists speak in the first person, assuming the roles of repentant sinners. The one exception is perhaps the bass, who frequently takes on a stern, paternal character. The other singers’ childlike directness reminds one of the many father-child relationships in Verdi’s operas: Rigoletto and Gilda, Germont and Alfredo, Amonasro and Aida. The music grows more hopeful as the soloists contemplate divine mercy, until the fiery opening returns again.

The second half of the Requiem offers comfort, solace, and even joy after the tribulations of the Dies irae: in the Offertorio, the central episode, the “Hostias,” is especially affecting; the Sanctus, a celebratory fugue, divides the chorus into two groups in a stunning display of complex, interweaving ideas. In contrast, the Agnus Dei is based on a single, tranquil melody. A shadow once again passes over the music in the Lux aeterna when the bass sings “Requiem aeternam,” but the mezzo-soprano responds with comfort, singing “Let eternal light shine upon them.”

The Requiem concludes with the Libera me, the music Verdi first composed for Rossini. After the soprano’s dramatic opening, the fiery Dies irae music makes a final appearance, dying away to the words and melody that began the entire work: “Requiem aeternam.” A defiant fugue follows, climaxing in a powerful statement, “Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna” (“Save me, Lord, from eternal death”), as if the singers now demand salvation. The Requiem then fades to a peaceful, yet for many listeners, unresolved conclusion. Perhaps reflecting his own religious agnosticism, Verdi ends the Requiem with a question mark: will we be saved?

A winner of the 15th Annual OPERA NEWS Awards, Ana María’s repertoire encompasses opera’s most intriguing and diverse leading ladies, and she engages audiences season after season with signature roles, spellbinding debuts, and myriad captivating recordings. In addition to starring roles on the opera stage, she engages in such diverse opportunities as voicing the role of opera singer Alessandra in season three of Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle, to performing in tribute to operatic legend Justino Díaz at the 44th Annual Kennedy Center Honors (CBS), to proudly representing her birthplace of Puerto Rico as an honoree and performer in the 62nd Annual Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City. She is honored to have been a 2021 recipient of Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner’s Hispanic Heritage Award in the Arts, and to be named one of Houston’s 50 Most Influential Women of 20202021 by Houston Woman Magazine.

On stage, Ana Maria is known for her stunning portrayals of the title roles of Rusalka, Carmen, and Florencia in Florencia en el Amazonas, as well as Mimi in La bohème, Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, Elisabetta in Don Carlo, Solea in El Gato Montes, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, Nedda in Pagliacci, Liù in Turandot, Marguerite in Faust, Alice Ford in Falstaff, Desdemona in Otello, and Amelia in Simon Boccanegra. These roles have taken her to leading opera houses throughout North and South America and Europe. 

Russian mezzo-soprano, Marina Prudenskaya, studied singing at the conservatory in her native St. Petersburg. Following her studies, she was engaged by the Stanislavsky Theatre in Moscow. She has since been a member of the ensemble at the Staatstheater Nuremberg, Staatsoper Stuttgart, as well as the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Since 2013, she has been an ensemble member of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin. In addition to several other awards, she won the German ARD music competition in 2003. Guest performances led her to great houses and festivals worldwide, including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Mariinski Theatre in St. Petersburg, Teatro Real de Madrid, Staatsoper Hamburg, Opéra de Paris, Washington National Opera, Vienna State Opera, GrandThéâtre de Genève, and Opera Zurich, as well as the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Salzburg Easter Festival, and the Bayreuther Festspiele, where she took on the roles of Fricka in Die Walküre and Waltraute in Götterdämmerung. She has collaborated with conductors Daniel Barenboim, Marek Janowski, Mariss Jansons, Hartmut Haenchen, Simone Young, Sebastian Weigle, Fabio Luisi, Daniel Harding, and Christian Thielemann. Marina`s repertoire ranges from the dramatic mezzo-soprano roles of Wagner and Strauss to Verdi´s Requiem and his leading mezzosoprano roles: Amneris, Eboli, and Lady Macbeth. In the 2021-22 season, Marina performed as Kundry in Parsifal at Deutsche Oper Berlin under Axel Kober, Oper Leipzig with Ulf Schirmer, and Opéra de Paris with Gustavo Dudamel at the conductor`s stand. Further guest performances took her to the Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, and the Leipzig Opera. Upcoming engagements in the current and next season include, among others, Lady Macbeth in Verdi’s Macbeth at the Prague State Opera; Venus in Tannhäuser at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin; Fricka in the new Ring at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden; and concert engagements under the batons of Marek Janowski, Hartmut Haenchen, Alain Altinoglu, and Daniel Barenboim. 

This season, Jonathan Tetelman makes several exciting house and role debuts. He first returns to the role of Alfredo in La traviata with San Francisco Opera, reprises Cavaradossi in Tosca with Deutsche Opera Berlin and Houston Grand Opera, makes his role and Wiener Staatsoper debut as Turiddu in Cavalleria rusticana, and his Salzburg Festival and role

debut as Macbeth. He returns to Semperoper Dresden for Rodolfo in La bohéme, reprises his acclaimed performances of Paolo in Francesca da Rimini with Deutsche Oper Berlin, and sings Loris Ipanow in Fedora with Ópera Las Palmas. In concert, he returns to Verdi’s Requiem in debuts with the Houston Symphony and Orchestre de Paris, and joins soprano Angela Gheorghiu in Brussels and Paris. Last season, Jonathan sang Stiffelio with Opéra national du Rhin, Jacopo Foscari alongside Placido Domingo in I due Foscari with Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Loris Ipanow in Fedora with Oper Frankfurt, Cavaradossi in Tosca with Theater an der Wien, and starred as Rodolfo in an operatic film of La bohéme in a coproduction with Radiotelevisione italiana and Opera di Roma. Jonathan recently made his Royal Opera House at Covent Garden debut as Alfredo in La traviata and Rodolfo in La bohème; sang Mario Cavaradossi in Tosca with Teatro Regio Torino, Semperoper Dresden, and Gran Teatre del Liceu; made his role debut as B.F. Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with Opéra national de Montpellier; sang the title role of Werther with Gran Teatro Nacional de Lima and Opera del Teatro Solis; Rodolfo in La bohème with Komische Oper Berlin, English National Opera, and Fujian Grand Theatre in China; and Duca in Rigoletto with Berkshire Opera Festival. On the concert stage, Jonathan has sung, among others, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the San Francisco Symphony and with the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, joined soprano Kristine Opolais in a gala performance in Moscow, and performed with the Copenhagen Philharmonic for a Verdi Gala. Jonathan completed graduate performance studies at The New School of Music, Mannes College, and earned his undergraduate degree from Manhattan School of Music. Born in Castro, Chile, he grew up in central New Jersey. 

Dmitry Belosselskiy is one of the most exciting basses of his generation. He has taken the operatic world by storm and is celebrated by audiences and critics alike.

These concerts of Verdi’s Requiem with the Houston Symphony are the start of Dmitry’s 2022-23 season and will be followed with the role of Phillippe II in Don Carlo at the Chicago Lyric Opera. He will start the new year at Teatro alla Scala in Milan with performances of I Vespri Siciliani, after which he will return to Wiener Staatsoper for Wozzeck and to the Metropolitan Opera New York for Der fliegende Hollaender, Aida and Don Giovanni. He will spend his summer at the Wagnerfestspiele Bayreuth.

Dmitry has established a remarkable career and has performed at the world’s finest opera houses and concert venues, including Metropolitan Opera New York, Teatro alla Scala, Salzburger Festspiele, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, Wiener Staatsoper, Opéra de Paris, Chorégies d’Orange, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Wagnerfestspiele in Bayreuth, Opernhaus Zurich, Teatro Real in Madrid, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Theater an der Wien, Washington National Opera, Canadian Opera Company Toronto, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, and Bayerische Staatsoper Munich. He has also appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as well as on the stages of Avery Fisher Hall, New York; Harris Theater, Chicago; John Hancock Hall, Boston; Philharmonie Luxembourg; Wiener Konzerthaus; Gewandhausorchester Leipzig; Macau International Music Festival; Seoul Arts Center; Palm Beach Opera; and Bregenzer Festspiele. 

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