VERDI'S MESSA DI REQUIEM, MARIINSKY THEATRE

video design // st. petersburg, russia

'Verdi's Requiem', the Italian master's only composition of musical drama that is not an opera, has gone down in the history of music as the most theatrical version of the traditional Catholic Mass for the Dead. It was written as a result of circumstances in the composer's private life: at the turn of the 1860s and 1870s Verdi lost a great many people who were dear to him.

His father, his close friend and collaborator the librettist Piave, and his brilliant fellow-countryman and predecessor in opera Rossini all died one after the other. This mournful list was completed by the death of the poet and writer Alessandro Manzoni, who was for Verdi "a model of virtue and patriotism", and for whom the composer had a profound respect both as a man and as an author.

FULL SHOW CREDITS

Musical Director and Conductor: Valery Gergiev

Director: Daniele Finzi Pasca

Production Concept: Daniele Finzi Pasca and Julie Hamelin

Set Designer: Jean Rabasse

Costume Designer: Giovanna Buzzi

Lighting Designer: Alexis Bowles and Daniele Finzi Pasca

Video Designer: Roberto Vitalini

Make-Up Designer: Chiqui Barbé