Giuseppe Verdi - Requiem
Shota Rustaveli State Drama Theatre

Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre Chorus and Orchestra
Conductor - Mariano Rivas
 

Beginning at 19:45

Mariano Rivas
(Spain)

Born in Gijón in 1971, studied violin and piano at the Music Conservatory in Oviedo.  In 1985, he won the 2nd prize in the "Casa Vienna" contest for young pianists.  In 1991 Mario Rivas entered the "Accademy of Music and Dramatic Arts" in Vienna to study orchestra conducting with K.Österreicher and L.Hager, graduating in 1997 cum laude. In 1995 he won the first prize at the International Competition for Conductors "Dinu Niculescu" in Romania as well as the prize for "Best interpreter of Romanian music". In 1996 he also won the 3rd prize at the Competition for Conductors in Baden (Vienna) and conducted  THE MAN OF LA MANCHA in Italy. At the ORF Radio Hall in Vienna he conducted the world premiere of opus Drei Bestiarien by T. Krinzinger with the Orchestra Pro-Arte.
In 1997 Mariano Rivas was awarded the Magister Artium in orchestra conducting by the Accademy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Vienna, conducting the ORF Orchestra  to great public acclaim. In Gijón and León he conducted the Spanish premiere of Alfonso UND Estrella by F.Schubert.  In 1999 he was a finalist at the "National Competition for Conductors" in Granada and conducted the Granada Symphony Orchestra in various concerts.
From 2000 to 2001 he was chorus director of the Oviedo Opera Festival and conducted a concert for the Verdi Centenary with the bass Yevgeny Nesterenko and the Moscow Virtuosi.
From 2001 to 2005 he was assistant director at the Teatro Liceu in Barcelona and to Giuliano Carella at the Teatro Real in Madrid and in Liege; he also was assistant to Marcello Viotti. 
He has worked with Carlos Alvarez and Monserrat Caballé in different concerts and Zarzuela Galas. In 2005 he conducted with the famous spanish bariton Carlos Alvarez as he was the protagonist in PELAGIO by Mercadante with the O.S.P.A. Orchestra, Gijón.  Mariano Rivas has revised and published the musical score of PELAGIO to great acclaim by both the general public and critics.
In 2005 he conducted his revised score of PELAGIO. He had the honour to conduct with Montserrat Caballè at the Open Air Festival in Klagenfurt, where she sang the principal aria of the protagonist in PELAGIO, together with other operatic and zarzuela highlights. He conducted the NABUCCO, tournee in France and MADAMA BUTERFLY in Teatro Bolshoi, Minsk, being the first guest conductor. He has conducted the Spanish Radio Symphony Orchestra  and Chorus  (RTVE).
Mario Rivas has conducted Zarzuelas in Spain, El gaitero de Xixòn, La Tabernera del puerto, Marina e Doña Francisquita. The last two with the Orquesta Pablo Sarasate and Filarmonica de Màlaga.
In 2007 he conducted TOSCA and MADAMA BUTTERFLY with the Frankfurter Symphoniker and Keith Ikaia-Purdy.
In 2008 and 2009 he conducted CARMEN with Nancy Fabiola Herrera and CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA in the Plaza de Toros in Gijón, MADAMA BUTTERFLYwith Massimiliano Pisapia at the Teatro Jovellanos in Gijón, THE LITTLE SWEEP (stage director Stefano Monti) and LA CENERENTOLA (stage director Giancarlo Del Monaco) at the Auditorium in Tenerife, and concerts with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Sanremo in Sanremo and Brescia. He also conducted Mercadante's PELAGIO at the Opera Festival in Martina Franca.
In 2010 he will conduct the opera premiere of Tarabella's CLOWN in Florence with the Orchestra Regionale della Toscana.
Mariano Rivas has worked with reknown stage directors such as Jean Louis Pichon, Giancarlo Del Monaco, Stefano Monti, and Emilio Sagi (November 2009).

http://www.mariano-rivas.com

Background 

 Giuseppe Verdi  was working on two projects _ “Aida” and  “Requiem” at the same time. In the period from 1860 to 1870 died Verdi’s  father, composer’s friend Piave, Rossini and Italian writer Alessandro Manzoni. Verdi was always admired with his works as well as personality. The “Requiem” was dedicated to Alessandro Manzoni. In 1873  composer wrote: “request of my spirit makes me respect Alessandro Manzoni’s memory. I was admired with his personality, gift and patriotism”.   The two men met only once, in 1868, when Clarina Maffei took Verdi to meet Manzoni at his home in Milan. Verdi wrote to her afterwards: ‘What can I say to you about Manzoni? How can I describe the extraordinary, indefinable sensation the presence of that Saint, as you call him, produced in me? I would have knelt in front of him, if one could adore a man. They say that we must not do that, although on the altar we worship many saints who have neither Manzoni’s gifts nor his virtues... When you see him, kiss his hand for me and tell him about all my reverence.’  The history of Verdi’s requiem began with one small step in the wrong direction. The year was 1873. the date _ 22 may. Alessandro Manzoni, the great italian poet, novelist and political leader,  who met verdi in 1868, and whom verdi greatly admired, visited the church of San-Fedele. While leaving he stumbled on the steps of the church and fell. He died instantly. He was 88 years old. Less than a fortnight later Verdi announced to Giulio Ricordi, a close friend and a publisher, his intentions of writing a requiem in memory of the poet. Verdi himself was already 60 years old. He was, at the time, the most important opera composer of italy, having already created almost all of his great operas, except for otello and falstaff. His announcement created a stir in musical circles, and raised many expectations for a masterpiece of religious-music.
Part of the requiem can be said to have already been composed. In november 1868 Rossini, the grand old man of italian music, died. Verdi proposed that the anniversary of his death be commemorated by a Requiem Mass to which all the leading Italian composers of church music should contribute a movement. He himself would provide the concluding “Libera me.” The Mass would be performed at the Church of san Petronio, bologna, the city with which Rossini had been most closely associated.  The pieces were all composed and copied in good time, but the performance never took place. The local impressario refused to make his forces available for the occasion, since this would have meant curtailing the opera season.  Besides, the arguing and squabbling that ensued between the other composers sadly prevented the completion of the project. Verdi was, needless to say, disappointed, but moved on to other projects, including the opera Aida.  In 1871, there was talk of reviving it for the inauguration of a bust of Rossini at La scala, Milan. This never took place either. but Alberto Mazzucato, a member of the committee who checked the several pieces composed, and director of the Milan conservatory, felt moved to write to Verdi praising his contribution to the skies. Verdi replied that he was almost persuaded to complete the Requiem on his own. The ‘Libera me’ which he composed is quite the same as the one that exists in the requiem we have today, having included already the references in it to the ‘Dies irae’ and ‘Requiem aeternam’. This ‘Libera me’ became, in fact, the acorn from which the oak of the present Requiem grew. The death of Alessandro Manzoni prompted verdi to proceed with his plans. On the 25 June verdi left with his wife for paris, where he began working on the Requiem. The work was completed by 10 april 1874.  The Requiem Mass for Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873) was first performed at the Church of San Marco, Milan on 22nd May 1874 (exactly a year to the day after Manzoni’s death) with Teresa Stolz (soprano), Maria Waldmann (mezzo-soprano), Giuseppe Capponi (tenor) and Ormondo Maini (bass); Verdi himself conducted. Three days later it was performed at La Scala with the same soloists, again under the baton of Verdi, with two further performances conducted by Franco Faccio.  The charge of being ‘too operatic’ was levelled at the Requiem by some critics.  The immediate appeal of the work has always been its drama; from the hushed, expectant reverence of the opening “Requiem Aeternam” to the fiery terror of the “Dies Irae”, to the sobbing strains of the “Lacrimosa.” Yet despite its drama, the work is not theatrical, and Verdi was quite clear in his instructions. “This Mass must not be sung the way an opera is sung, and thus colours that can be good in the theatre will not satisfy me at all.” It is true that the requiem has something of the operatic in it. However, in good performances, the dramatic touch only strengthens the power of this composition. The question of whether it is truly ‘ecclesiastical’ is more problematic.  Verdi wasn’t an orthodox catholic. One may say that he was an agnostic christian if not an unbeliever.  Notably Hans von Bülow, the German conductor, called it ‘Verdi’s latest opera, though in ecclesiastical robes’. This caused an uproar in the Italian press. But there were other voices: Brahms, having read von Bülow’s criticism, examined the score of the Requiem and declared that ‘Bülow has made an almightly fool of himself. This is the work of a genius’. Later, von Bülow retracted his remark.  Wagner, having heard the requiem, is reported to have said, simply, - “it is better to say nothing..”  In the following years Verdi himself took the Requiem on a tour of Europe. It was accepted with enthusiasm and later on the Requiem conquered Europe: 15 Performances in paris between 1874-1875, 4 performances in vienna, and 3 in london. In Verdi’s owncountry the Requiem became so popular that it was played, at times, without the composer’s consent, sometimes even by military bands  (in Ferrara) or in settings to four pianos (in Bologna).  Generally to great acclaim and handsome box office receipts - indeed, it turned out to be quite a money spinner for composer. Only in London the vast, newly built Royal Albert Hall could not be filled, although the newspaper reviews were excellent: the puritanical Victorian audience remained distrustful of a liturgical work.   The ‘Liber Scriptus’, originally written as a choral fugue, was turned into a solo for mezzo-soprano in 1875. And - this is where the charge of ‘too operatic’ may ring true - music discarded from ‘Don Carlo’(the tenor-bass duet following the death of Posa) before the Paris premiere was used to moving effect in the ‘Lacrymosa’ bass solo.   Among verdi’s creations the Requiem is considered the most condensed, with no ‘operatic’ interruptions and delays. Musicologists think of it as one of his most complicated composition. As his wife, Giuseppina, a particularly wise judge of her husband’s music, wrote, “Posterity will place it, with wings outspread, in domination of all the music of mourning ever conceived by the human brain.”