Requiem’s text comes from the Roman Catholic liturgy and is a Mass to honor those who have died. Composers throughout the centuries have turned to this sacred text as a source of inspiration. Most musical settings of the requiem use the text in some fashion, some verbatim and others incorporating other texts to make a statement on death, the afterlife, nationalism, or politics. Many requiems from the past 200 years use orchestra, chorus, and soloists to bring the text to musical life.

It’s no wonder that the dramatic text has been a popular choice for composers to set to music. There are limitless possibilities to explore both the heights of salvation and depths of damnation. Verdi's Messa da Requiem is almost the opposite of an opera, which has various characters, a plot, sets, and costumes. There are no characters or conflicts needing resolution. The Requiem pulls us in and then holds our attention even without any staging, costumes, or even characters. Verdi does tell a story, with some of the most operatic music ever written. He examines various stages of mourning as our “protagonists,” consisting of soloists, chorus, and orchestra, move through various emotional states – solemnity, grief, fear, anger, guilt, anxiety, loneliness, denial, desire for salvation, and acceptance.Verdi’s drama unfolds musically and keeps attendees engaged through the very end.

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.