Four opera gods walk into La Scala. What follows is pure sonic transcendence.
A Verdi Requiem with a dream line-up of soloists and the forces of La Scala, Milan, directed by one of the greatest maestros of our time. Preceding acclaimed performances at the Lucerne and Salzburg Festivals, Barenboim and his magnificent partners recorded this masterpiece around a live performance at La Scala, Milan, in 2012. This marks the first audio recording by Barenboim in his role as La Scala’s Music Director. A superb quartet of soloists – Jonas Kaufmann, Anja Harteros, Elīna Garanča and René Pape – stamp their authority on this terrific performance.
Acting
Four soloists at absolute peak power. Kaufmann's tenor could shatter stone.
Direction
Barenboim conducts like he's negotiating with death itself. Urgent, intimate, devastating.
Sound
La Scala's acoustics captured live. You hear the hall breathe.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Verdi's Requiem was his only major sacred work, written not for church but for his literary hero — making it essentially a secular grief opera disguised as liturgy.
Barenboim had just become La Scala's Music Director when this was recorded, making this his official coronation — and he chose to mark it by confronting death rather than celebration.
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