Above: Giuseppe Verdi
Author: Oberon
Thursday May 9th, 2019 - Oratorio Society of New York presenting Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at Carnegie Hall. The performance was conducted by Kent Tritle, with soloists Elizabeth de Trejo, Raehann Bryce-Davis, Joshua Blue, and Adam Lau.
Verdi’s Messa da Requiem was first performed in Milan in 1874. The composer had written the famous Libera me in 1869 for a proposed requiem mass marking the death of Gioachino Rossini - for which several prominent composers each wrote individual movements. The premiere of this "Rossini Requiem" never took place, and it languished in obscurity until it was unearthed in 1988 by conductor Helmuth Rilling. I attended its US premiere performance at Avery Fisher Hall in 1989, conducted by Maestro Rilling. Surprisingly, it was not very interesting; much of the music was forgettable - except for Verdi's contribution.
The death of the Italian poet and humanist Alessandro Manzoni in 1873 prompted Verdi to re-work his Libera me as the final movement of his own setting of the Latin texts for the "Mass For The Dead", honoring Manzoni's memory. Verdi's Messa da Requiem is often referred to as a "sacred opera" and indeed this evening's performance at Carnegie Hall was perhaps the most "operatic" of the many live performances of the piece that I have experienced over the years.
Carnegie Hall was packed to the rafters tonight. The performance started late: the huge orchestra and chorus were seated onstage and eager to start, but nothing was happening; we wondered if one of the singers had taken ill. But at last, conductor Kent Tritle and the evening's four soloists took their places and, as the audience quietened, the performance began.
From its very quiet opening, this music casts a particular spell. The opening Requiem aeternam was hauntingly beautiful, and I must say I have never heard the layering of the choral voices so distinctively presented as tonight.
One of my favorite moments in the score is the introduction of the solo voices; in turn, each intones the Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison and the listener immediately senses what kind of singing we'll be hearing during the ensuing 90 minutes. Tonight, in all honesty, none of the singers sounded good here: their voices seemed muffled, dry, edgy, woolly. My friend Adi and I felt our spirits sag: would we have to endure these unsorted voices all evening?
But as Maestro Tritle steered a steady (and swift) course, the four singers found their centers and the performance began to take on a great vividness. The conductor's forward impetus, and the excellent work of the chorus and orchestra, created a setting in which the vocal soloists could summon up both the spiritual and the human qualities of the music through vocal color and verbal inflection. Emotions were in play, and the Requiem has seldom sounded so operatic. Soon, we were hanging on every word and note.
Soprano Elizabeth de Trejo's silvery tone and well-projected high notes allowed her to sail over the massed chorus and orchestra forces in the concerted moments. In her solo and duet passages, she sang with intensity or reassuring calm as the texts suggest. One had the feeling of a Mozartean soprano singing this music; it worked for Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Pilar Lorengar, and Ms. de Trejo's personal commitment to the score made it work for her tonight. She is a very individual singer, of unique timbre.
Bringing the Requiem's operatic aspects to the fore, mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis was truly impressive. Recalling for me her great predecessor in this music, Florence Quivar, Ms. Bryce-Davis showed a voice of great warmth and power, with a dramatic thrust that summoned visions of Amneris or Princess Eboli. She and Ms. de Trejo were fascinatingly blended in their two duets - the Recordare and the Agnus Dei - as they achieved a successful melding of timbres that might at first have seemed incompatible. How lovely and touching these two duets sounded tonight. Elsewhere, Ms. Bryce-Davis made use of her dusky-rich chest voice, again making us aware that this is really an opera dressed in sacred vestments. This woman is a great communicator.
Tenor Joshua Blue sang with full "big lyric" tenor sound and a feeling of genuine sincerity. His two "arias" - the Ingemisco and the Hostias - were finely-molded, the voice ever warm and appealing. Mr. Blue's singing is of the type that blends beautifully with other voices whilst maintaining its individuality.
Adam Lau's voice is not one of those big, booming basso instruments that are sometimes heard in this music; rather, he brings a sense of nobility and poetic expression to every passage. As the evening progressed, I found myself increasingly moved by Mr. Lau's ability to suffuse his music with a touching sense of humanity. His singing of the Confutatis was of particular value to the performence: great dynamic control and depth of feeling.
Viva Verdi! My notes abound in details of the performance: the cordial harmonizing and etched-in rubato of the two women in the Recordare; the restless longing that underscores the Lacrymosa; the violin "chill" at the start of Mr. Blue's melodious Hostias; the heavenly bliss expressed by the chorus in the middle section of the Sanctus; the trumpets ringing out from the balconies during the Dies irae; the silvery glow of Ms. de Trejo's "...transire ad vitam..." and her urgent "Tremens...factus...", the sublime beauty of the entire Lux aeterna; the hopeful plea of Mr. Lau's "...voca me cum benedictis...". I could go on and on.
Above: a full-house standing ovation at the end of the performance, photo by Tim Dwight. To the conductor, soloists, chorus, and orchestra: Bravi tutti!
~ Oberon