Britten’s War Requiem with Dutoit
Thursday, March 23 8:00 PM
Friday, March 24 2:00 PM
Saturday, March 25 8:00 PM
Charles Dutoit Conductor
Tatiana Monogarova Soprano
John Mark Ainsley Tenor
Matthias Goerne Baritone
Westminster Symphonic Choir
The American Boychoir
Britten War Requiem
Conductor Laureate Charles Dutoit returns to lead a massive ensemble in one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of music: Britten’s War Requiem. The composer’s response to the travesty and destruction of war—written to consecrate England’s Coventry Cathedral in 1962, newly rebuilt after being destroyed in a Nazi bombing—features chorus and soprano singing the traditional Latin Mass, constantly interrupted by a chamber orchestra and male voices singing in English. Dutoit says he was overwhelmed when he first heard the work, as a student in Switzerland shortly after its premiere. He has since performed it all over the world. Tradition dictates that the soprano be Russian, the tenor English, and the baritone German, representing the combatants in World War II. We honor that tradition with singers Tatiana Monogarova, John Mark Ainsley, and Matthias Goerne.