Donizetti: Messa da Requiem

From the Basilique de Saint Denis, the burial place of the French Kings since centuries and at the same time one of the first gothic churches in the world, comes the first ever audiovisual recording of a long lost masterpiece of Italian sacred music, full of romance and belcanto: Gaetano Donizetti’s luminous Messa da Requiem. The highly virtuosic and lyrical score, expressing the Christian vision of the passage from death to eternal life, combines the imposing polyphony of a choir with the operatic brilliance of soloist arias. The Argentine conductor Leonardo García Alarcón conducts his Orchestre Millenium, an orchestra dedicated to bring ancient music to a new generation, with “precise gestures and rich contrast” while the Choeur de Chambre de Namur impresses with “clarity and power” (Forum Opera).