OBC & Ludovic Morlot

L’Auditori has commissioned a work for baritone and orchestra from not one but three of Catalonia’s most outstanding home-grown composers: Raquel García-Tomás, Joan Magrané and Octavi Rumbau.

Giuseppe Verdi attempted a similar collaboration when various musicians were commissioned to compose a requiem on the occasion of Rossini’s death, but the work was never performed. Years later, with the loss of the poet Alessandro Manzoni – Verdi’s personal friend and a fellow supporter of Italian unification – the composer retrieved the “Libera me” he had prepared for Rossini and used it as a basis for his Messa da requiem. Written for four soloists, double choir and orchestra, the Requiem brings this season to a close.