Verdi's Requiem | Ely Sinfonia and King's Lynn Festival Chorus

Almost all of Verdi’s most performed works are operas. But one, his Requiem, is probably performed almost more than any of his other compositions. Yet he almost didn’t write it. “There are so many, many masses for the dead. It would be pointless to add one more”, he said to a friend.

But then Rossini died and Verdi reversed his decision and collaborated with eleven other Italian composers to produce a joint Requiem. His particular contribution was the Libera Me, which three years later he used as the basis for his Requiem for Alessandro Manzoni, an author and great Italian patriot who shared many of Verdi’s political ideals.

Tonight, Ely Sinfonia joins forces with King’s Lynn Festival Chorus to perform Verdi’s religious masterpiece, which is one of the best-loved requiems ever written. And what could be a finer setting for it than Ely Cathedral?