The Requiem, the commission “Damn” – Revista Teatre Barcelona

At the end of August 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his wife, Constanze, leave Prague, along with the composer’s disciple, Franz Süssmeyer. When going to the carriage, a stranger Mozart stops and tells him that he wants to make an order from a gentleman to make a mass of deceased. Mozart’s first impetus was to reject the commission because he had a lot of work, and maybe he was already beginning to have the first symptoms of kidney problems that would eventually lead him to death. Upon arrival, a marriage and a disciple to Vienna, the messenger reappeared and advanced in advance: 50 ducats, and promised 50 more when the work was completed; Of course, he had to do it in four weeks. Did not get further data. In the end, the economic issue prevailed and Mozart accepted the commission.

At the end of the first two sections of the Requiem –L ‘Introitus and the Kyrie-, the composer momentarily left the commission on the one hand to finish rounding the end of the opera The magic fluteand the other, To go to Prague with Süssmeyer to compose his latest opera, The Clemenza di Tito. At the end of September he returned to Vienna to compose the Music for a Masonic funeral and the Concert for Clarinet KV 622. The messenger reappeared to claim Mozart the agreed Requiem. The composer was becoming worse and worse and all gave rise to the famous speculation and the story – mythified – of his death. In a biography of Mozart published a few years later, Georg von Nissen He stated that Constanze, seeing Mozart’s gradual breakthrough, took him to the Prater de Vienna to distract him, and where Mozart allegedly confessed that he was composing a Requiem for himself, for his own death. , and he suspected that he had been poisoned.

With this and the mysterious commission of the Mass of Dead, it was enough to start the speculative machinery that ended up producing two different theories around his death. The first that says that all was a plan warp by Antonio Salierias the Italian composer, 30 years later and in a senile dementia attack, confessed that he had “killed Mozart”. The theory, however, was difficult to sustain so that, although Salieri could participate in some palace intrigues (like many people well located in court), he had a good character and fame to help other composers (without going further to be a teacher of Franz Schubert). In addition, Salieri and his lover were friendly to see The magic flute With Mozart and it is seen that everyone enjoyed the show. The second theory, on the other hand, says all this was a plot of masons as a revenge for revealing secret Masonic practices to The flute magical. If this had been the case then they would have also had to pursue Emanuel Schikaneder -Prompt, musician, actor, Freemason and person who commissioned this opera to Mozart, who survived for twenty years in Salzburg’s genius and had no problems with any lodge companion. On the other hand, none of the qualified doctors who attended Mozart found a trace of poison when certifying the cause of his death.

The reality of what happened is that the “mysterious” commission was made by a dilettante and rich bourgeois Freemason, the Count of Walseggan individual who used to present as his concerts that he had commissioned others. This time, as a special commission, he wanted to make the order to a famous musician and made his discretion extreme; Hence the mystery of his identity and the question of the famous messenger.

Mozart fell ill at the end of November 1791 and died in early December, leaving half a half -composing Tear from Requiem. In fact, it was well poetic that the last words that the composer wrote in the score were just “that day of tears and mourning”. Finally, Constanze, to secure the 50 ducats in delivering the work, commissioned to Joseph Eybler climb its central movements; Eybler made some arrangements and transcripts about Mozart’s written directions, but he ended up withdrawing. Constanze then commissioned Franz Süssmeyer’s work, who did finish his job. Entering the Mozartian melody, Süssmeyer composed the three final sections of the Requiem with a remarkable musical quality, as you can see when you feel the Domine Iesu or l ‘Agnus Deifor example. By the way, in the end Constanze ended up collecting the 50 ducats agreed for the completion of the commission “Damn”.

It Requiem It premiered in Vienna on January 2, 1793 and, being a mass, has a whole series of invariable parts: the Kyrie eleison (Invocation to God: “Lord, have mercy”), the Sanctus (Honor to the Holy Trinity: “Saint, Saint, Saint”), the Benedictus (praise to Jesus entering Jerusalem) and theAgnus Dei (Jesus offered to sacrifice for men’s sins). The most famous parts of the Requiem are theIntroitus (introduction) and the Kyriethat contains the Days Iraethe Rex Trendaethe Will rememberthe Confutties and the famous Tear. That is, the parts that Mozart wrote properly, although it is not necessary to forget the beauty and serenity of the corresponding parts already in Süssmeyer as theAgnus Dei or of Jesu domain.

A heartwarming and corrending piece

The instrumentation of the Requiem It is sober, as the orchestration has no flutes, oboes, no conventional clarinets or clarinets (there are the ‘corni de Bassetto’, which are a kind of more severe clarinets). It is not necessary to forget that Mozart had “absorbed” everything he could from the work of Georg Friedrich Händel and, above all, of Johann Sebastian Bach. Without going any further and at example cut, the roped rhythms of the ropes to the magnificent Introitus and the first escape of the Kyrie has similarities with movements of the Messiah of Händel like the And hey Shall Purifyfor example. Mozart, with the use of a discreet counterpoint and evoking an archaic liturgy, turns his Requiem In an overcoming of the subject, of the meat – they weighted in the operatic trilogy of Lorenzo da Ponte, The Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte!– And it projects a serene vision in the face of the undeniable fact of death. In fact, the use of counterpoint and escape (especially in the Kyrie and the Jesu domain) It represents a way of musically causing death. All the work, in short, represents a kind of resignation without fear against the day of the final judgment.

The music of the Requiem It is striking, correnter: it is by the fire and the lightning of divine anger (Days Irae(Rex Trendae) but also subtle by the quartet for four delicious soloists Will remember(precisely located between the choral force of the aforementioned Rex Tremendae and the powerful curse of the Confutties), the most tender, innermost moment, in which Mozart cries out to the mercy of the Son of God to save the men from divine anger and punishment. Although the instrumentation is sober, the most dramatic passages have a resounding, but balanced strength and contrasts with the sublime intimacy of those times when a beautiful and tired melody is melted at the same time (the aforementioned Will remember and the famous Tear). In short, then, beyond the myths that surround the composer’s death and the genesis of Réquiemmaybe it is nothing more than the immense beauty of his music that represents the true mystery of this wonderful piece.

Castellucci’s bet

The Liceu, through its choir and its symphony orchestra, will be at the forefront of the teacher Giovanni Antoninithat is, the founder of one of the most important Baroque music orchestras in the world such as Il Giardino Armonico. As for the soloists, the presence of the Mozartian soprano Anna Prohaska and an excellent mezzo -soprano -to whom we saw at the Liceu a few years ago Hoffman’s tales of Jacques Offenbach– As it is Navy Viotti. As for the male voices, the South African Belcantist tenor Levi Sekgapane (Winner of Opelia 2017) and Baix-Baritone Nicola ulivieri They will complete the vocal box. But for Mozart, Antonini and the singers were not enough, the Italian playwright Piersandra di Matteo and the famous theater director Romeo Castellucci They will offer a staging of this work – together with other Mozartian religious works – with a choreography and worked stage interpretations that will transform the liturgy of the musical mass into a reflection on human existence that will help to visually show the nudity of the Human being in front of death.

This stage proposal of the Requiem Mozarià, which Castellucci took on stage for the first time in 2019 at the Festival of Aix-en-Provence And by 2022 at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, it now arrives at the Liceu but for a few days (a representation of which, by the way, will be held in the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia!): Without a doubt we must not miss it !

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