Wichita Symphony closes season with dramatic look, sound for Verdi’s requiem

A requiem mass is one of the hallmarks of many great composers, perhaps none as much as Giuseppe Verdi for its dramatic content and scale, Daniel Hege says.

“Really, Verdi’s approach on this was less religious, even though the setting is obviously a requiem mass, but it’s much more about intensifying all of the emotions that would go into a standard Requiem — recognizing those who have gone before us, but still celebrating the living,” the conductor and music director of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra said. “So, he basically intensifies those things about fear of death, and the afterlife, and that kind of thing, so the most dramatic moment that is so often played is that Dies Rae theme, which is with the big bass drum and the whole chorus singing, and it’s really meant to almost instill the fear.”

But it dramatically changes tone, Hege said.

“What it comes back to is the joy and the freedom: the Libera Me, which is kind of setting us free, and also the Lux Aeterna, the eternal light. So, it really has a very positive overall, and very life-affirming quality to it,” he said. “But yes, it’s the dramatic aspect and the scale of it. It’s really like another opera of Verdi’s, really. It’s been called that by many scholars of Verdi’s work. It unfolds and has a dramatic tension of a regular opera of his.”

Wichita Symphony concludes its Masterworks season at Century II next weekend with Verdi’s Requiem, which executive director Tim Storhoff says will be on the same scale visually as audibly.

“We’re going to amp up that drama a little bit, too,” he said. “We’ll have 1,000 candles on stage, sort of adding to the vibe of the event. I think the chorus is about 180 people plus, about an 80-person orchestra, so we’re looking at about 250 people that are going to be on that stage.

“So, this is a big, epic, sort of shake-the-rafters music,” Storhoff added.

Verdi’s Requiem debuted in 1874, amid other composers’ versions of the mass.

“It’s funny because, you know, obviously the Requiem Mass is something that began in the church, and this is also a Catholic Mass,” Hege said. “Various composers had different takes on it. With Mozart, of course, that’s part of a commission. And then there were scholars that posited that he was writing it for himself because he was ill at the time and ended up dying before it was finished. But then there, you know, is someone like the Brahms requiem and this actually falls right around that time of Brahms.

“In the 19th century requiems, the focus seemed to always be on some loved one. For Brahms, it was his mother. For Verdi, it was Alessandro Manzoni, a great writer and statesman. And of course, Rossini, who was his kind of his musical ancestor he was following in the footsteps of. When Rossini died, then Verdi wanted to compose the Libera Me, which is the very last section,” Hege continued. “So there were a lot of different inspirations, I think, for requiems in general, but it usually had to do with something that was personal to the composer.”

Adding to the visual aspect, Storhoff said, is a memorial to WSO patrons and contributions nearing the end of the requiem.

“We get a lot of donations in memory of someone, whether they had a connection to the orchestra, or just someone who really loved music has passed,” he said. “With this concert, we’re inviting anyone who did that to light a candle when we get to that Lux Aeterna moment in memory of, sort of, whoever they want to honor. So it’s going to take on a new personal level of meaning.”

Through supertitles, audience members holding the battery-operated candles will be given a cue to turn them on. Dedications by family members and friends, with photos, are on a page of the WSO website.

“This was something we added on that has kind of taken on a life of its own and become really meaningful for us on the team who are receiving these memory notes and everything,” Storhoff said. “But also for the people making these gifts in people’s memories. I think it’s going to be a really powerful moment. There’s going to be a reflection for people who are participating in this before the concert with someone from Cozine Memorial Group is going to sort of lead that.

“People are going notice it from those singing and performing on stage. We’ll see those lights come on,” he added. “And vice versa.”

VERDI’S REQUIEM BY WICHITA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 11

Where: Century II concert hall, 225 W. Douglas

Tickets: $29-$85, from wichitasymphony.org, 316-267-7658 or the Century II box office