Performance: Verdi's Requiem

With a thunderclap from an enormous bass drum, the screams of a full symphonic chorus on a rapid descent into hellfire, and eager pleas for eternal redemption, Verdi’s Requiem is an opera in sacred clothing. Resident artists from the Pittsburgh Opera, a choir combining the Erie Philharmonic Chorus and the Touring Choir of Grove City College, and the Erie Philharmonic will all combine to bring this gargantuan dramatic musical presentation to life. In a joyful 8-voice double fugue (!) the chorus sings “Sanctus.” In a haunting and poignant solo tenor plea for mercy, “Ingemisco” soars like a great moment from Aida. All of this incredible music is set to the dramatic text from the old Latin funeral rite, and the amassed forces of the Erie Philharmonic will bring this epic work to life in a single evening in March.