{ program notes
Ron Cadiz of Don Carlo for Opera Philadelphia, L’ Elisir d’ Amore with Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the world premiere of La Ciociara by Marco Tutino with San Francisco Opera. His repertoire also includes Alfredo in La Traviata, Tebaldo in I Capuletti e i Montecchi, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor and the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto.
A native of New York, Mr. Pittas is a graduate of Potsdam University’ s Crane School of Music.
Dimitri Pittas last appeared with the BSO in June 2014, performing Beethoven ' s Symphony No. 9, Marin Alsop, conductor.
Morris Robinson
Morris Robinson, a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, made his debut in the Met’ s production of Fidelio. He has since appeared there as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Ferrando in Il Trovatore, the King in Aida, and Nabucco, Tannhäuser, Les Troyens and Salome. He has performed with the San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Boston and many others. His roles include Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Ramfis in Aida, Zaccaria in Nabucco, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Commendatore in Don Giovanni, Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlos, Timur in Turandot, the Bonze in Madama Butterfly, and Padre Guardiano in La Forza del Destino.
Mr. Robinson’ s first album, Going Home, on the Decca label, is a CD of spirituals. An Atlanta native, he is a graduate and two-time All-American football player at The Citadel, and received his musical training at the Boston University Opera Institute.
Morris Robinson last appeared with the BSO in May 2012, performing Beethoven ' s Symphony No. 9, Peter Oundjian, conductor.
Choral Arts Society of Washington
The Choral Arts Society of Washington Chorus
Scott Tucker, artistic director The Chorus of The Choral Arts Society of Washington is a symphonic chorus with a rich history of performing locally, nationally and internationally with world-class orchestras, conductors, solo artists and ensembles. The Chorus regularly appears on national broadcasts as part of A Capitol Fourth and The Kennedy Center Honors. The group’ s impressive discography includes 19 commercial recordings.
Founded in 1965 by Norman Scribner, Choral Arts has performed a wide range of music, from early Renaissance to Broadway, large scale works to folk songs, reviving classics as well as commissioning and premiering new works.
Scott Tucker became Choral Arts’ second artistic director in 2012, and under his leadership the chorus has grown to 190 members. In 2015, Mr. Tucker conducted a festival for the American Choral Directors Association( ACDA), and this summer, he will conduct the finale of the Classical Movements’ Serenade! Festival.
The Choral Arts Society of Washington Chorus last appeared with the BSO in November 2003, performing Prokofiev’ s Alexander Nevsky, Yuri Temirkanov, conductor.
About the concert:
Messa da Requiem
Giuseppe Verdi
Born in Le Roncole, Italy, October 9, 1813; died in Milan, Italy, January 27, 1901
When the poet / novelist Alessandro Manzoni died in Milan on May 22, 1873 at the advanced age of 88, he left Giuseppe Verdi the sole surviving spiritual / cultural leader of the Risorgimento, Italy’ s successful mid-19 th century movement to reunify as a nation free of Austrian domination. Manzoni had been the poet of the Risorgimento, Verdi its composer.
To non-Italians, Verdi’ s artistic legacy in his mighty series of immensely popular operas is well known, Manzoni’ s far less so. Manzoni had written what is even today Italy’ s most famous and beloved novel, I promessi sposi(“ The Betrothed”). Virtually every Italian has read it( Verdi himself first read it at age 16), not only for its romantic story but also for its fresh, vivid language. For Manzoni had consciously tried to create a new language for a new nation, heretofore divided by regional dialects. In I promessi sposi he produced the model for modern literary Italian at just the moment when Italians were most eager to embrace it. At his death, a whole nation mourned.
Verdi mourned too. To his lifelong friend, the Contessa Maffei, he wrote:“ Now all is over! And with him ends the purest, the most holy, the greatest of our glories. I have read many papers. No one speaks fittingly of him. Many words, but none deeply felt.”
Too grief-stricken to attend Manzoni’ s funeral, Verdi brooded on his own memorial. A week later, he proposed it to the Mayor of Milan: a requiem mass to be composed by him and performed in a Milanese church on the first anniversary of Manzoni’ s death. Verdi would pay the expenses of producing and printing the music and would select, train, and lead the chorus, soloists, and orchestra. The city would pay the performance expenses. The Mayor didn’ t think twice; here was Italy’ s greatest composer— fresh from the triumph of Aida— offering a new work in memory of Milan’ s first citizen.
The Requiem and its performing forces— four vocal soloists, including the soprano Teresa Stolz( the first La Scala Aida); a chorus of 120 and an orchestra of 100— were ready as promised on the anniversary, May 22, 1874. Verdi had chosen Milan’ s Church of San Marco as having the finest acoustics for the
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