Verdi’s Requiem                              

After a fall in January 1873, Manzoni’ mental alertness diminished, although he regained sufficient lucidity to enable him to make his final confession a few days before his death on the evening of 22 May. His funeral took place on 27 May at Milan Cathedral, and was attended by a huge crown as well as by the nation’s highest dignitaries, including the King’s representative, Princes Umberto and Amedeo of Savoy, the Presidents of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, and the Foreign Minister. Condolences were offered by countless people upon the death of the great writer; in the traditional forms but also in the form of poems by famous poets and many others. The most famous homage was undoubtedly Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem, a work in progress for several years until Verdi resolved to dedicate it to the memory of Manzoni. The work was first performed the following May in the Church of San Marco in Milan<, on the first anniversary of Manzoni’s death. Reluctant to compose for celebratory events, Verdi had composed an earlier Requiem for Gioacchino Rossini, who had died in 1868. Verdi was a great admirer of Manzoni, whom he met when the writer was already advanced in years, and had read the Promessi Sposi with considerable passion in his youth, claiming it to be the greatest book of his time. Nonetheless, he did not consider transposing the novel into an operatic melodrama, although he had put to music I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata by Tommaso Grossi. The operatic transposition of the Promessi Sposi was undertaken by other musicians: Enrico Petrella’s opera was first performed in 1869, with a libretto by Ghislanzoni. Manzoni’s novel indeed contains more than a few “melodramatic” moments and places, which bring the work close to the culture, including the musical culture, of Italian Romanticism. In addition to its operatic versions, Manzoni’s novel has been spread in other forms, which have often emphasized its characteristics as a popular novel.