The fath­er of the mod­ern Itali­an nov­el and a hero to 19^th-cen­tury Itali­an na­tion­al­ists, Aless­andro Man­zoni was ven­er­ated by Verdi for both his artist­ic tal­ent and his mor­al force. When Man­zoni died, Verdi could not bring him­self to at­tend the fu­ner­al. But even­tu­ally he de­cided to hon­our Man­zoni with a Re­quiem Mass, a mo­nu­ment­al piece with all the dra­mat­ic power and ex­press­ive lyr­i­cism of Verdi’s op­er­as. "Only a geni­us could have writ­ten such a work," Brahms said.

"Gust­avo Du­damel puts an in­tim­ate flour­ish on Verdi’s Re­quiem", the Los Angeles Times writes about Du­damel’s per­form­ance of Verdi’s Re­quiem at the Hol­ly­wood Bowl. "A page was turned and a new chapter be­gun in the mat­ur­a­tion of a mu­sic dir­ect­or."

Du­damel is joined by a cast of high-class sing­ers: Ildebrando D´Ar­can­gelo, who reg­u­larly per­forms at La Scala, the Wien­er Staat­sop­er, Lon­don’s Roy­al Op­era or the Salzburg Fest­iv­al, the up­com­ing star ten­or Vit­torio Grigolo, who reg­u­larly guests at La Scala, Cov­ent Garden, the MET etc., Michelle DeYoung, who per­forms with lead­ing or­ches­tras like the New York Phil­har­mon­ic, Bo­ston Sym­phony Or­ches­tra, Chica­go Sym­phony Or­ches­tra etc., and Ju­li­anna Di Gi­ac­omo, who reg­u­larly guests at the MET, the LA Op­era and oth­er in­ter­na­tion­al op­era houses. Also avail­able: Mak­ing Of (18’).

From the Hol­ly­wood Bowl:

Los Angeles Phil­har­mon­ic
Gust­avo Du­damel, con­duct­or
Ju­li­anna Di Gi­ac­omo, sop­rano
Michelle DeYoung, mezzo-sop­rano
Vit­torio Grigolo, ten­or
Ildebrando D’Ar­can­gelo, bass
Los Angeles Mas­ter Chor­ale
Grant Ger­s­hon, mu­sic dir­ect­or