Posted on: Saturday, June 30, 2001

Verdi 'Requiem' tickets still available

When Giuseppe Verdi died 100 years ago in Milan, hundreds came to his funeral, though the composer of the popular operas "Rigoletto," "Aida" and "La Traviata" had asked that the occasion be kept quiet.

To this day, admirers of his music are unable to resist celebrating Verdi's work: Tonight, the O'ahu Choral Society, the Hawai'i International Choral Festival Choir and Orchestra and four vocal soloists conducted by festival artistic director Timothy Carney will perform, appropriately,

Verdi's "Requiem," in memory of his death Jan. 27, 1901.

The 7:30 p.m. event at the Neal Blaisdell Concert Hall is the culmination of the festival. Tickets, at $12.50-$45, are still available by calling 792-2000.

The "Requiem" actually was Verdi's homage to the Italian poet and novelist Alessandro Manzoni, who died in 1873. Some years before, Verdi had suggested that a group of the era's noted composers each prepare a part of a Requiem — a sung Catholic Mass for the dead — in honor of the composer Gioacchino Rossini, who died in 1885. However, no one took him up on it. Years later, Verdi "recycled" the piece he'd written for Rossini, "Libera Me," for a Requiem for Manzoni.