Sydney Philharmonia Choirs attracted a full house at the Concert Hall of Sydney Opera House once again, this time for a Saturday Matinee of Verdi’s “Messa da Requiem”. The Choir’s programming choices have proven very successful this year with their audience consistently growing.

Giuseppe Verdi is one of the world’s best known opera composers. All the around the world at any time of the year you are bound to find his operas playing. La Traviata, Aida, Rigoletto, Don Carlo, Il Trovatore, Otello, Simon Boccanegra… audiences never seem to tire of the easily recognisable arias and dramatic orchestrations. Written not only with the audience in mind, his operas are also brilliant vehicles to showcase opera voices and are a popular choice by singers for recitals and variety concerts.

If Verdi was not so much into writing for the church, how did the Requiem come about? Another big name opera composer living in the time of Verdi was Rossini. When Rossini passed away, Verdi suggested a group of 13 composers – 12 plus himself – compose a Requiem in Rossini’s honour to be premiered on the first anniversary of his death. As often happens with projects run by committees, progress was difficult and the project was finally abandoned just 9 days before it was due to be performed. Verdi was furious with the lack of motivation and organisation and held on to the movement he had completed, the closing section for the Requiem “Libera me”.

A few years later another big name passed away, Italian master poet and novelist Alessandro Manzoni. Verdi had much admired this extraordinary writer 30 years his senior and found his passing to be the ideal opportunity to write “Messa da Requiem”, this time completely on his own without a committee.

A Requiem written from an operatic point of view is quite different from a typical church mass. Even in the texts, Verdi chose to focus on prayer, glory to God and asking for deliverance. Quite a positive approach compared those which focus on a dark and torturous crucifixion. Of course light and dark must both be represented and the “catch cry” of Verdi’s Requiem has to be the amazing “Dies Irae” with Chorus/Choir at full volume, a BIG bass drum to accompany Timpani and some fierce fiddling. This video version at the Met has two bass drums…

In our version, the only one not so impressed was the Blind Dog stationed on the side of the choir rows who fell asleep. I suppose he’d been to the rehearsals and seen it all before.

Verdi’s premiere was in Milan’s San Marco church and the second performance a few days later at La Scala. It wasn’t a mainstay for churches because of the opera styling and demanding solo roles not suited to church singers so, it faded away for a while. Later it was revived and now the concert hall is generally considered the most appropriate performance venue.

Lead by Artistic Director Brett Weymark, the Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra and combined choirs of 350 voices were out in full force. It’s a work that starkly highlights each area of the orchestra in their moments of magic and the musicians fully embraced each opportunity. The tempi were excellent. The more lyrical parts to the Requiem were unrushed though, at times, the orchestra overwhelmed the soloists in volume which could have been corrected.

Featured as soloist was Australian Mezzo-Soprano Deborah Humble. As an Australian we would love to see her working here in Sydney more often, the vast majority of her work has in the past been spread over the Northern Hemisphere including as principal artist for the Hamburg State Opera. There are plenty of solo pieces within the Requiem for the Mezzo and Humble did an excellent job both on her own and when working in ensemble.

Tenor Diego Torre is no stranger to Sydney audiences. He has performed many seasons with Opera Australia. With him, “art is art concealed”. He can easily fly over everyone else on the stage with apparently little effort but is also generous enough to know when to hold back in the ensemble sections.

Completing the soloist team was Baritone David Greco, best known for his truly beautiful ABC recordings of Schubert Lieder accompanied by Pinchgut Artistic Director Erin Helyard. He has performed with Pinchgut Opera at the City Recital Hall many times so is well familiar with the opera genre however, the Recital Hall is a different space to the SOH Concert Hall and at times he sounded a little swamped out. The quality of his voice is lovely though and his interpretation made searching for the English translation in the program redundant. Bravo.

Matinée audiences are not always as enthusiastic as evening crowds so it wasn’t a full standing ovation however, they loved the performance and were filled with positive feedback in the corridors after the theatre doors were opened. In all, I would say everyone in the room, both on stage and off, had a fantastic time. With only one performance this year, let’s hope the Requiem will be repeated in 2024.

Highly recommended.

Join the choirs for Mahler’s Symphony no. 8 on 11 June 2023: https://www.sydneyphilharmonia.com.au/

Listen to Schubert’s Winterreise with David Greco and Erin Helyard: https://www.davidgreco.info/new-releases