Siena, June 21 I Notturni dell'Opera bring Giuseppe Verdi to the Basilica dei Servi

In Siena next Thursday, June 21, 2018, at the Basilica of San Clemente in Santa Maria dei Servi, I Notturni dell’Opera will be held, with the full performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem. Gian Franco Indrizzi, Rector of the Opera della Metropolitana di Siena, and Giuseppe Costa, President of Opera - Civita, are pleased, for the seventh consecutive year, to celebrate with a great event the summer solstice and the longest day of the year by offering the city an evocative evening in one of the most beautiful places in Siena. For the first time, in fact, the event will move from the Monumental Complex of the Duomo to be welcomed inside the Basilica dei Servi where the Sienese fabbriceria, entrustee of the monument, has decided to intervene with a financing aimed at the recovery of part of the roofing to the securing of part of the architectural structures.

Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem was first performed in its entirety on the first anniversary of Alessandro Manzoni’s death, May 22, 1874, in the church of San Marco in Milan. It was conducted by Verdi himself and the success was so enormous that the composition’s fame soon transcended national borders. The work is a sacred composition for choir, soloists and orchestra and will be performed by the Unione Corale Senese “Ettore Bastianini,” the Choir of the City of Florence and the “Ettore Bastianini” orchestra. In truth, Giuseppe Verdi, had been thinking about the composition of this opera for some time, so much so that in 1869 he had promoted the organization of a requiem mass by several hands for the death of Gioachino Rossini, but the fact that the first performance took place in memory of Manzoni, connects I Notturni dell’Opera to a history not known to all Sienese. On March 30, 1856, Matilde Manzoni, daughter of the author of The Betrothed, died in Siena. She arrived in the city in 1852 with her sister Vittoria and brother-in-law Giovanni Battista Giorgini. Matilde goes to live first in Sant’Eugenia and later in La Lizza where she will die of consumption at the age of twenty-six without ever seeing her father again. On closer inspection Alessandro Manzoni had never been too concerned about his young daughter so much so that before his death it is Matilde herself who writes “...it is too painful for me to have to live so foreign at all for a part of my blood.” The great writer would care for his daughter only after her death, having her buried in the corridor of the cloister of the Basilica dei Servi and writing in his own hand the epigraph: “Matilde daughter of Alessandro Manzoni. Here she rests snuffed out by slow disease on XXX March MDCCCLVI. In the last year of the fifth lustre she left desire of herself for a life beautiful of all virtues that sublimate sex. Her father her brothers and sister Vittoria wife to Gio Battista Giorgini commend her to the prayers of the pious Sienese.”

With I Notturni dell’Opera the partnership between the Unione Corale Senese and the Coro Città di Firenze continues after last November’s successful concert at the SS. Annunziata in memory of Ettore Bastianini. The two choral entities have, in fact, started a project site to develop collaboration between the two choirs and Tuscan musical institutions. An exchange between singing enthusiasts, institutions, private promotion and music professionals, to enhance the talents and the artistic and musical heritage of the Tuscan territory. The concert, conceived by the Unione Corale under the artistic direction of Francesca Lazzeroni, will feature a full performance for grand chorus, soloists and orchestra of one of the most challenging pieces in the repertoire, Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem precisely. The orchestra, made up mainly of young musicians, is the result of the project aimed at young people that the Unione Corale has been carrying out since 2015 in which more than 70 young people have participated over the years; the soloists will be Lara Leonard (soprano), Francesca Lazzeroni (mezzo-soprano and Siena choirmaster), Simone Mugnaini (tenor) and Ivan Voklov (bass). The 150 elements, including voices and instruments, will be conducted by Concetta Anastasi, conductor and maestro of the Florentine choir.

Participation in the evening is free admission subject to availability. For info 0577/286300 - opasiena@operalaboratori.com

Siena, June 21 I Notturni dell'Opera bring Giuseppe Verdi to the Basilica dei Servi

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