Verdi’s Requiem

An Opera or a Requiem Mass?

Only a few years after his great success »Aida«, the celebrated opera composer Giuseppe Verdi created the Messa da Requiem. The first performance, conducted by the composer himself, took place in 1874 in San Marco in Milan. The Requiem by the successful opera composer was eagerly awaited. It was all the more discussed in the aftermath: Is this large-scale work an opera or a requiem mass? Is this music, which is much more dramatic than one is used to in the genre, suitable for the church or does it not rather go beyond the liturgical framework? The music critic Hans von Bülow, for example, called the work an »opera in church garb«.