Great News!

A GENOUX

Requiem de Verdi

Auditorium du Parco Della Musica à Rome

Dimanche 11 Janvier 2009


Anja Harteros (soprano)
Sonia Ganassi (mezzo-soprano)
Rolando Villazon (ténor)
René Pape (basse)
Chœurs et Orchestre de l’Accademia Santa Cecilia
Direction Antonio Pappano


This is the title of an article written by Sylvain Fort about the concert he attended on that Sunday in Rome. When I read this account, I was in complete admiration for what he wrote and felt shattered. I remembered the two performances of Verdi's Requiem Rolando sang in Saint Denis cathedral in 2006 and which were broadcast by France-Inter one night and by France-Musique the following night. I listened to both, even recorded one. It is a must to go back to Sylvain Fort's article through QOBUZ now that the EMI CD has been released. I have seen all of them in live performances except for the soprano Anja Harteros. Sonia Ganassi is the last one I saw at the Fenice last May, in Bellini's Maria Stuarda. She gave a stunning Elisabetta. Her voice is one of my favourite in that bel canto repertoire.
René Pape was Eugene Onegin while Rolando was Lensky at the Berlin Staatsoper last September and need I mention I enjoyed that night so much?
Then, the conductor Antonio Pappano was directing the last Tales of Hoffmann where Rolando, for the second time at the ROH, was so much what I wanted to hear and see in that role!

This is what I want to listen to, because it is going to be different from all the previous Verdi Requiems. I can feel it from what I read from Sylvain Fort, who is always adding depth to the music account, looking for modern echos, what is needed in this incoherent period where doubt is even deeper than ever before. This prestigious and fairly young cast, together with fantastic musicians will make a precious CD for this period of silence from Rolando, and what with opera seasons being over, that is really GREAT NEWS.

What is a strange coincidence, though, is that just yesterday I ordered a set of four CDS from Cypres Records on the history of the Requiem...

• Pierre Bartholomée A History of the Requiem, part 4
• Anton Bruckner & Maurice Duruflé Une histoire du requiem, 3e partie
• Johannes Ockeghem & Roland de Lassus A History of the Requiem, part I
• André Campra & Michael Haydn A History of the Requiem, part II

Soon I will work on (translate) some passages of that account "A GENOUX" a fine and overwhelming text, just like this Verdi's Requiem.