VERDI'S REQUIEM presented by GAUTENG CHORISTERS

In the words of BBC Music Magazine's Deputy Editor, Jeremy Pound, "Verdi’s Requiem is one of the most dramatic, and undoubtedly the most operatic, of its type ever composed." It was the death of the great Italian composer, Gioacchino Rossini in 1868, that prompted Verdi and other composers to compose a Requiem for him. The attempt failed but Verdi had composed "Libera me", which he would use later. Being disappointed that his and other composers efforts to write a Requiem for the great Rossini came to naught, Verdi decided to compose a Requiem alone, when the great Italian poet Alessandro Manzoni, whom he admired greatly, died in 1873.