Adelaide Festival. Adelaide Festival Theatre. 11 Mar 2023
Numerous composers have written Requiem Masses, the Roman Catholic funeral mass, such as Mozart, Cherubini, Saint-Saëns, and Berlioz, but none are quite like the one from Verdi’s pen. It was first performed in Milan in 1874 and was written in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, a national poet of Italy, whom Verdi admired very much. Some notable musicians at the time panned it suggesting it was too operatic and not sufficiently reverent and solemn. A case in point is the Dies Irae (‘Day of Wrath’) that is so astonishingly vibrant it would easily be at home in a Stravinsky ballet.
With almost all of his substantial oeuvre already composed, Verdi is at the height of his powers when the Requiem Mass has its première, and his signature use of transcendent melodic phrases, spirited and varied rhythms, and contrasting textures comes to the fore throughout the score. It is thought that Verdi was as much concerned with the humanity associated with end of life as he was about the religious aspects, if not more so. This is significant because the music doesn’t respond so much to the text as it does to human emotion. More on this later.
Messa da Requiem is enormous in scale. Presented by Ballett Zürich, one of Europe’s most esteemed ballet companies, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the Adelaide Festival Chorus, Messa da Requiem involves more than 200 artists: 170 Adelaide singers and musicians and 36 dancers. The Festival Theatre stage is fully exposed, and it is filled to almost overflowing. It is an awe inspiring sight to behold, and the memory of it will persist in the minds of the capacity audience for years to come. The power of the production is almost immeasurable, and, arguably, its impact will speedily eclipse that of previous Adelaide Festival headline events.
Messa da Requiem faithfully presents Verdi’s musical and choral score, and dancers perform a sequence of sixteen balletic tableaus which, according to award winning choreographer and producer Christian Spuck, and in sympathy with Verdi’s own thinking, are more an interpretation of and response to the music than to the religious text. This reviewer freely confesses to not being a dance aficionado, and was smitten by the precision, athleticism and pure emotive power of the dancers. The figures they sculpted on stage with their bodies as both individuals and groups were evocative, sensuous (yes, even within the context of marking the occasion of death!) and achingly beautiful. In this endeavour they were assisted by the chorus who formed an immense corps de ballet, and worked with the dancers to sculp visions of biblical inundations, giant reptiles that might have been conjured up from a Bosch painting, and teeming multitudes of tormented souls at the day of the Final Judgement. One’s mind could conjure almost any interpretation, but that is probably the point: constructing an indelible and highly personal response to Verdi’s daring and bravura music, which in turn is meditating on the mysteries of end of life.
The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra is at the top of its game under conductor Johannes Fritzsch, who is the Principal Conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. The woodwinds and brass are especially fine. Christie Anderson, who is the Artistic Director of the Adelaide Chamber Singers, produced superb results from the choir. One could hear individual words of the latin mass as if it was being sung by a single singer rather than by a massed choir. Christian Schmidt’s stage design is minimalistic but gothic in its conception. The use of immense and cavernous space underlines the insignificance of man. Emma Ryott’s simple costumes use a restricted colour palette and concentrate on blacks and dark hues. The effect is solemn, and the use of flowing black tulle dresses in one scene was striking. Martin Gebhardt’s lighting was positively sympathetic to the dance and to the general temperament of the piece, and the use of a mobile lighting unit that was moved around across the floor by dancers was extraordinarily effective as it cast menacing shadows of dancers on the undressed walls of the set.
And to the soloists, who are all Australian artists with international recognition and careers. Soprano Eleanor Lyons was exceptional, and her Libera Me with the chorus was sublime. Paul O’Neil has a generously warm tenor voice, and his performance of Ingemisco was heartfelt. Bass baritone Pelham Andrews was exceptional in the middle of his range, and he sang both Tuba Mirum and Confutatis with humble reverence. Mezzo Soprano Caitlin Hulcup sang sublime duets with Lyons, and was particularly impressive in the Agnus Dei and the Recordare.
But even though there were excellent singers on stage and an impressive orchestra in the pit performing the magnificent music of Verdi, with skilled dancers on stage at the pinnacle of their craft, the greatest accolade must go to Christian Spuck, whose choreographic and collaborative genius has produced a truly memorable, important and enduring work of art.
Bravo, brava, bravi!
Kym Clayton
When: 11 Mar
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: Closed
