Lux Aeterna: Abbado alla Scala at Work on Verdi's Messa da Requiem

Images of immediacy, images of eternal values with Claudio Abbado, Montserrat Caballe, Peter Dvorsky, Chris Merritt, Samuel Ramey Click here to watch more content about Montserrat Caballé: Subscribe: In the middle of his most productive period, Giuseppe Verdi took time out from operatic composition to compose a Requiem Mass in memory of his friend, the poet and patriot, Allessandro Manzoni. The resulting composition changed the face of thee sacred music forever. Making no concessions whatsoever to previous liturgical traditions, Verdi's “Manzoni Requiem“ is at once deeply pious and vibrantly theatrical, bringing out die words of die liturgy as only the greatest master of theatrical music could. Norbert Beilharz's film looks at this masterwork of 19th Century music through 20th Century eyes, presenting the entire work, not as die usual televised concert, but rather as a film collage, concentrating on three locations: St.