Verdi’s Requiem and the Dies Irae: From Stage to Silver Screen
Jader Bignamini and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Audiences will be swept away when the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the UMS Choral Union bring Giuseppe Verdi’s towering Messa da Requiem to life in Hill Auditorium on September 26. Composed in 1874, this dramatic and deeply moving work remains one of the most beloved masterpieces in choral repertoire.
But it’s the chilling, thunderous, and instantly recognizable second movement — the Dies Irae — that transcends concert halls and echoes through our shared cultural imagination. Preview this excerpt featuring maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus:
The phrase Dies Irae (“Day of Wrath”) originally comes from a 13th-century Latin sequence used at Catholic funeral Masses. Over centuries, a particular melodic idea from that chant became shorthand in Western music for death, fate, or looming catastrophe. Its four-note motif is also a cinematic cue heard in many films, from The Lion King to Star Wars to It’s a Wonderful Life. Relive some famous movie scenes in this video and article from Vox:
Verdi’s Dies Irae doesn’t quote the four-note chant note-for-note, but it inherits its drama and symbolism, and amplifies it! His Requiem explodes with fortissimo brass, pounding bass drum, and rapid string figures, creating the same apocalyptic mood the chant once conveyed, but now on an operatic scale.
Experience Its Power in Person
More than 150 years after its premiere, Verdi’s Requiem remains a living force that continues to thrill and move us. When you attend this performance, you’re stepping into a dramatic legacy that unites centuries of human emotion, from sacred ritual to epic cinema.
Hear the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and music director Jader Bignamini, the UMS Choral Union, and four outstanding soloists pack the Hill Auditorium stage on Friday, September 26, with Verdi’s monumental Requiem. Feel the drama in the full breadth of its seven movements…and then let the Dies Irae echo in your mind as you leave!
Tickets start at just $26 (+fees), with many student ticket discount opportunities available.
