All three 8 PM Schuster Center concerts feature DPO Chorus, four guest vocalists in Giuseppe Verdi’s “Requiem”
In an extraordinary programming twist, for three consecutive nights and over two separate concert series, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra will present the same work and give concertgoers the rare opportunity of hearing the work live. The dates are Thursday, May 15 (Classical Series), Friday May 16, (Dayton Daily News Classical Connections Series) and Saturday, May 17 (Classical Series), at 8 pm in the Schuster Center. The work is Giuseppe Verdi’s ground-breaking composition, Requiem.
On all three nights, Music Director Neal Gittleman will lead the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and Director Hank Dahlman will lead the DPO Chorus in Shaking the Heavens. Guests soprano Rachel Rosales, mezzo-soprano Kathleen Clawson, tenor Richard Crawley, and bass-baritone Charles Robert Austin will join the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus. On Friday evening, May 16, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra Music Director Neal Gittleman will explore the fascinating history of the Requiem in A Requiem for All Time, with the addition of an overture and some additional commentary. Unlike the usual Classical Connections format, the DPO will be dressed in concert black in deference to the intent of the work.
In its 75-year history, the DPO has only performed Verdi’s Requiem five times; twice each with Paul Katz and Charles Wendelken-Wilson conducting, and once with Neal Gittleman conducting. This will be the first time the DPO will perform the work to its best, most breath-taking advantage in the acoustically magnificent Mead Theatre of the Schuster Performing Arts Center.
Completed in 1875, this religious composition became a benchmark in the history of music. Known largely for his 28 operas, Giuseppe Verdi achieved a new level with his Requiem, as he was finally free from the restrictive trappings of the stage. Awesome in scale, magnificently pictorial, and profoundly moving, the work sweeps the listener up in the eternal forces that Verdi’s imagination and skill summons. Neal Gittleman, the Orchestra, Chorus, and guest soloists will present this great drama in the vivid acoustic environment of the Mead Theatre.
Giuseppe Verdi brought all his skill as a master composer of dramatic operas to the task of composing his Requiem. Dramatic text inspired him to compose large portions of the music in powerful, grand, symphonic proportions for the concert hall rather than the church. Yet he remained very faithful to the standard liturgy. On the Dayton Daily News Classical Connections concert evening, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra Music Director Neal Gittleman will explain how Verdi combined these elements to paint a canvas of unforgettable musical beauty.
On both Classical Series concert evenings at 7 pm in the Mead Theatre, Thomas Bankston, General & Artistic Director of the Dayton Opera, will conduct a Take Note discussion.
On the Dayton Daily News Classical Connections concert evening, a Question & Answer Session with Neal Gittleman follows the performance.
Rachel Rosales, Kathleen Clawson, Richard Crawley, and Charles Robert Austin are the Bill & Dianne Schneider Endowed Guest Artists.
Tickets: Classical Series Concerts $10.50 – $59.00; Dayton Daily News Classical Connections Series Concert $10.50 to $39.
For photographs of Neal Gittleman or any of the various series’ guest artists, go to:
http://www.daytonphilharmonic.com/content.jsp?articleId=239