A SPECIAL charity performance of Verdi’s Requiem will take place in Reading’s Concert Hall early next month.
Featuring the talents of the Corona Orchestra and the Oxford Chorus, organisers are promising a passionate, complex and profoundly moving performance of the mass, which was first performed in 1874 and is said to be one of the most compelling pieces in the choral repertoire.
It was composed in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian poet and novelist whom Verdi admired.
Verdi was the conductor for its premiere performance.
Designed to be performed as one piece, this staging will be without an interval and lasts around 90 minutes.
The guest singers will be soprano Erica Eloff, mezzo Yvonne Howard, tenor Joshua Owen Mills and bass-baritone Ben Davies.
Erica regularly performed with the London Handel Players and appears at concert halls worldwide.
Yvonne has performed with the Royal Opera in Covent Garden and the English National Opera and has been described as “one of the finest singing actresses this country has produced”.
Welsh-born Joshua was a Jerwood Young Artist with Glyndebourne Opera and has performed at the North American Festival of Wales in Minneapolis, among others.
Ben’s CV includes singing at the British premiere of Hermann Suter’s Le Laudi.
The Oxford Chorus is a relatively new group, who formed in 2015 for a performance of Holst’s The Planets. In June, they performed Beethoven’s Symphony No 9. The choir say they are “all excellent musicians with strong vocal skills”.
The evening’s charity is Singing for Syrians’; the initiative run by the health and education charity, Hands Up. This focuses on funding long-term and sustainable work in Health and Education to respond to the vast and varying needs of those affected by Syria’s conflict.
The concert will be staged on Saturday, October 5 from 7.30pm. Tickets cost from £14 to £32 with concessions available.
For more details, or to book, call 0118 960 6060 or log on to verdirequiemreading.com
