On Thursday, September 18, at 5:00 PM, the Metropolitan Opera will put on Verdi’s Requiem in honor of the first anniversary of Luciano Pavarotti’s death on September 6, 2007. James Levine will conduct the Met’s orchestra and chorus, with Barbara Frittoli, soprano, Olga Borodina, mezzo-soprano, Marcello Giordani, tenor, and James Morris, bass, as the soloists. Tickets for the event will be free and given out in a raffle. To enter the raffle, visit the Met’s box office or, starting tomorrow, its website . The concert will also be broadcast on the Met’s Sirius satellite radio channel and on its website .
For my money, Verdi’s Dies Irae and Tuba Mirum capture the terror and majesty of the Apocalypse better than any other composer. Here’s Herbert von Karajan conducting the Wiener Philharmoniker in a performance of those movements. I imagine that Met’s performance will rise to similar heights, if not surpass them.
