De Profundis

Verdi's searing 'Requiem'

Benjamin Ivry June 9, 2004 - 3:47am

The hundredth anniversary of the death of Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), widely commemorated in the music world this year, reminds us that he wrote what is generally conceded to be the greatest and most popular work of modern spiritual music, the Messa da Requiem (1874). Studded with mighty choral episodes and a terrifying "Dies Irae" ("Day of Wrath") movement, the Requiem has been called-only half jokingly-"Verdi’s greatest opera."
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