Mozart : Requiem 2023 - Opéra Royal

Concerts

Mozart : Requiem

Cast

Presentation

Homepage Mozart : Requiem 2023

Cast

Ying Fang Soprano
Beth Taylor Mezzo-soprano
Laurence Kilsby Tenor
Alex Rosen Bass
Chadi Lazreq Child soprano
Pygmalion Choir and orchestra
Raphaël Pichon Conductor

Presentation

An unfinished masterpiece, a musical testament, a timeless sacred composition that transcends the religious context – there is no shortage of superlatives to describe Mozart’s Requiem. When he died on 5 December 1791, the composer had finished the Requiem and the Kyrie and established a large proportion of the content for the following five numbers, from the Dies Irae to the Confutatis.

This work has since given rise to countless theories, a host of unfinished pages and some splendid interpretations above all; it compels both audience and performers, reaching us almost intact in the form left behind by Mozart, as if these last notes, the dying composer’s still-raised pen, were all the more precious.

The Requiem is interwoven with other vocal pieces by Mozart, most of them rarely performed, and enriched with excerpts from the Gregorian Ritual. The aim of this choice is “to create, before and during the Requiem, other listening conditions, shaking up our habits and expectations”, explains Raphaël Pichon. This new neighborhood offers “a play of mirrors”, extending the Requiem’s plasticity as both personal testimony and universal expression. The opening and concluding antiphon “In paradisum”, traditionally sung as the coffin is carried out of the church, plays the role of a final farewell to the deceased.

The prodigious composer’s final work will be performed by Raphaël Pichon leading his Pygmalion Ensemble. Leading young singers will form the sublime vocal quartet.