Monday, March 12
Today we went to a performance of Verdi’s Requiem. Finally, a topic we know something about!
Rossini, the composer of The Barber of Seville and many other popular operas, died in 1868. To honor him several composers, including Giuseppe Verdi, collaborated to compose a requiem mass in his honor. Later that year, exactly nine days before the premiere, the conductor abandoned the project and the performance was canceled. The project spurred Verdi into writing a requiem of his own and it was premiered in Milan on May 22, 1874.
The performance we attended was staged at the National Opera and Ballet where we had previously seen a performance of Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera. The piece is scored for full orchestra, a double choir and four soloists. It is one of his mature works and was composed shortly after his opera Don Carlo. The piece, neither an opera nor an orchestral work, is not often performed. We had purchased tickets about a month ago and had been eagerly awaiting this night. Even if you don’t recognize the name of the piece you would undoubtedly know some of the music. Excerpts from the Dies Ire have appeared in many places in popular culture.
The choir was situated at the back of the stage. The orchestra was arranged in typical fashion and the soloists stood on both sides of the conductor. The offstage trumpets were placed in the balcony level boxes to the left and right of the stage. The conductor motioned a downbeat and music filled the auditorium.
The soloists were excellent. Atypically, the choir was a strong, professional and well prepared group. During several of the canonical entrances they were not fully synchronized with the rest of the performers but the blame for that rested squarely on the conductor’s shoulders. The orchestra, also members of the opera company, played at a very high level. We thoroughly enjoyed the performance. If there had been other performances scheduled we would happily have attended them as well.
(National Opera and Ballet Theater)
Editorial comment: We’ve heard so many people say they don’t like operatic music like Verdi’s Requiem. If you liked the music from the movie Amadeus then you’re quite familiar with Mozart’s Requiem – it comprises most of the soundtrack from the second half of the movie. Why not give it a try. It’s wonderful stuff.
Distance walked: 2.9 miles
Tuesday, March 13
Our plan for the next two days is to revisit all of our favorite restaurants before we leave for Plovdiv on Thursday. Today’s first order of business was to buy train tickets for the trip. We’ve been told that the busses are faster and cheaper but we prefer the train. We took the subway to the station; we considered it a dry run. Two tickets for the 2.5 hour trip cost us $6.00 each. We walked back into Town, bought some kazandibi for dessert and headed on over to Corso for lunch.
On the way home we walked through the Serdica Center subway station (Serdica is the ancient name of Sofia). When they were excavating for the subway they found ruins from Roman times. The city decided to display some of the relics in the main passage way. The floor, which is used for all pedestrian traffic to/from the subway station, are the actual stones from ancient times. It’s the same type of paving that you’d find on the Appian Way in Rome.
(Serdica Center Subway Station)
Distance walked: 5.4 miles