Verdi’s Requiem | The highlight of the Classical Spree

This is the Requiem by Verdi which is the highlight of the Classical Spree this year. The Press attended the first performance of the work on Friday evening in a nearly packed Maison symphonique.

Probably the most performed of the requiems, along with Mozart’s (Fauré not coming very far behind), the score composed by Verdi just after his Aida is able to attract crowds, something classical concert organizers badly need in these post-pandemic times.

The quartet of soloists chosen by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, whose best element was the Canadian-Tunisian mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb, was however very uneven, in this work where the soloists have a crucial contribution.

The instrument of Canadian-Lebanese soprano Joyce El-Khoury, who was recently heard at the Opéra de Montréal in the title roles of Madama Butterfly and of The Boy Queenlacked a fair bit of roundness. It was probably this relative closure of the voice (too much in the mask, not chesty enough) which made him miss his high B flat (quadruple pianissimo !) just before the Free me, where she nevertheless distinguished herself by her dramatic involvement.

The Italian tenor Oreste Cosimo (absent from the printed program!), on the other hand, has a baritone voice of respectable width, especially for such a small physical frame. The fact remains that the whole thing lacks finesse. The voice would need the softness of a mixed voice (a mixture of chest voice and head voice), which would allow it to give more equality across the entire register. The fact remains that the timbre is magnificent and one can only love this kind of voice which gives an immediate physical impact.

His colleague, the Polish bass Adam Palka, has a very warm midrange and a respectable volume. It is all the more unfortunate that he is often short of high notes, even if he manages to cheat so that the audience does not notice it too much… It is as if he lacks the anchor of a very deep breath to properly seat the notes in the upper register. The text is also absent. It is not because it is Latin that you have to sing everything recto tono (L’Gold supplexnotably).

Rihab Chaieb, as we have said, was much more convincing, even if there could have been more volume and metal in her voice. Here is one who said the text, which makes real nuances, all with a ductile and fruity voice.

The most in form was surely Rafael Payare, very comfortable in this score, which he performs in a very personal way. If the Dies irae was not agitatedthe conductor preferring to detail the score and support the singing of the choir and the orchestra, the Sanctus was on the contrary a little too hyperactive (it is a simple allegro, nor prestoneither perennial), hence a gap that fortunately quickly resolved itself. It is impossible not to feel shivers in the Myriad tubawith trumpets on either side of the second balcony.

The OSM Choir was otherwise excellently prepared by its conductor Andrew Megill, with splendid high notes from the sopranos and excellent diction (the “m”s inaeternamwell vibrated in the mask in the first piece!).

The concert will be repeated on Sunday at 3 p.m.