I don’t believe that Verdi’s Requiem has ever been performed at St Matthew’s Church. Its scale – in our production there will be nearly 200 performers – is usually prohibitive but on 11 June we have teamed up with West London Sinfonia and Questors choir to make this possible. The Requiem is unmistakable. Some call it Verdi’s greatest opera, and yes there is a staged version of it which, sadly, we are not doing. In the Dies Irae, Verdi uses the full power of the trumpets trombones and of course that bass drum quite literally to put the fear of God in both performer and listener. If trumpets on stage and off, producing fanfares powerful enough to raise the dead (Tuba Mirum) aren’t quite your thing, then the beautiful and delicate quartet sections (Recordare, Lacrymosa etc) may interest you instead.

Composers generally write only one Requiem, and the result is usually a very personal piece. It is said that Brahms wrote his requiem for his mother, and Mozart apparently for himself, as he knew his life was escaping him during its composition. Verdi, on the other hand suggested that all Italian composers write a section of a requiem for Rossini, who died in 1868. Verdi offered the Libera me, and over the following year other sections were added. The work was completed, but never performed because of disagreements about fees. The manuscripts were returned to their writers, who, apart from Verdi, remain seemingly unheard of.

In 1873, the Italian writer, Allesandro Manzoni, whom Verdi revered, died, and the grief-stricken old man of Italian opera set about completing the Requiem.

It is a rare opportunity to hear such a fantastic work in Ealing, performed by some of the best musicians in the borough. Philip Hesketh will be conducting, and the quartet is made up of soprano Lecia Robertson, mezzo soprano Carolyn Filak Royan, whom we are proud to have as a member of our congregation at St Matthew’s, tenor Michael McBride who sang with us in March, and bass Stephen Holloway. This promises to be a fantastic evening, and it may be a while before there is another chance to hear a ‘Verdi drum’ in full anger in Ealing.