Hello friends, I know our selection for this week is early, but it felt important to share today (Saturday) instead of tomorrow. In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the Metropolitan Opera is performing Verdi’s Requiem this evening (this will be the first performance inside the Metropolitan Opera House since the March 2020 closure due to the pandemic). The Met’s Music Director
It must have been jarring to hear applause again. I think back on watching the fairly quiet Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, where all they heard was the sound of one hand clapping. Today has been a day of heartstrings being pulled, from start to finish. At least I have celebrated both Rosh Hashanah and the Ethiopian New Year with friends this past week. They've given me a foundation of positivity to stand on. So "L'shana tovah" and "Melkam addis amet!" to you, Heather, and opera lovers everywhere. I'm happy to have a reboot. Till next time! 🔯✝❤
“Perhaps the most dramatic moment comes in the last 15 minutes when the soprano has a full operatic scena. The audience lays witness to her internal conflict as she works through her emotions, almost in conversation with a choir filled with celestial angels, purgatorial souls, and full orchestra.
The soprano begins rather desperately, almost angrily demanding that she be rescued from eternal death. By the very end, she has peacefully resigned herself to her own fate.
Throughout this final movement of the Requiem, we hear the gamut of emotions: anger, fear, penitence, and piousness. In the end she almost welcomes her own death chanting in the musical purity of the key of C major. The movement is as emotionally exhausting for the audience as it is for the singers. The orchestra, chorus, and singers tell a story filled with whirlwind emotions moving through profound loss, terror, and anger, and ending with a sense of eternal peace – that begins and ends in the same tranquility. While it’s not a typical operatic plot with conflict and resolution, we still have been part of a story all told through music.“
Having heard LaScala with Abbado conducting the Requiem at the Kennedy Center it was thrilling. They sang from memory and I never forgot it. Th NJSymphony also sang it at the Jersey City memorial on 9/11 and later as a tribute to Alfredo Silipigni at NJPAC. All quite moving.
Thanks for this announce… unfortunately I am reading late… do you know if there is a place where we can listen on demand now, I mean expired the 24hrs?
You can listen live at this link too:
https://www.wqxr.org/
I'm so thankful for this. I'm watching on PBS. It's such a fitting way to end a day of commemoration and moving tributes.
It must have been jarring to hear applause again. I think back on watching the fairly quiet Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, where all they heard was the sound of one hand clapping. Today has been a day of heartstrings being pulled, from start to finish. At least I have celebrated both Rosh Hashanah and the Ethiopian New Year with friends this past week. They've given me a foundation of positivity to stand on. So "L'shana tovah" and "Melkam addis amet!" to you, Heather, and opera lovers everywhere. I'm happy to have a reboot. Till next time! 🔯✝❤
“Perhaps the most dramatic moment comes in the last 15 minutes when the soprano has a full operatic scena. The audience lays witness to her internal conflict as she works through her emotions, almost in conversation with a choir filled with celestial angels, purgatorial souls, and full orchestra.
The soprano begins rather desperately, almost angrily demanding that she be rescued from eternal death. By the very end, she has peacefully resigned herself to her own fate.
Throughout this final movement of the Requiem, we hear the gamut of emotions: anger, fear, penitence, and piousness. In the end she almost welcomes her own death chanting in the musical purity of the key of C major. The movement is as emotionally exhausting for the audience as it is for the singers. The orchestra, chorus, and singers tell a story filled with whirlwind emotions moving through profound loss, terror, and anger, and ending with a sense of eternal peace – that begins and ends in the same tranquility. While it’s not a typical operatic plot with conflict and resolution, we still have been part of a story all told through music.“
Having heard LaScala with Abbado conducting the Requiem at the Kennedy Center it was thrilling. They sang from memory and I never forgot it. Th NJSymphony also sang it at the Jersey City memorial on 9/11 and later as a tribute to Alfredo Silipigni at NJPAC. All quite moving.
Powerful
Thanks for this announce… unfortunately I am reading late… do you know if there is a place where we can listen on demand now, I mean expired the 24hrs?