The Royal Opera's Verdi festival was, in more optimistic times, originally planned to perform all his stage works in annual instalments, climaxing at the centenary of the composer's death in 2001. After all the turmoil at Covent Garden, it survives now as just five events in the Festival Hall this year, beginning last Sunday with Bernard Haitink conducting the Requiem, which is repeated tonight. There are also two concert performances of the early Un Giorno Di Regno and an all-purpose Verdi "celebration".
Haitink is usually an interesting conductor, whatever he does, and his close relationship with the Royal Opera House orchestra and chorus tends to produce committed results. But this account of the most theatrical of all requiem settings didn't blaze with the dramatic certainty it could have done, and a few momen tary lapses of ensemble suggested the performance was not quite as well oiled as it could have been. Roger Parker's intriguing essay in the programme suggested that Verdi's motives for writing the work were much more about mourning a lost Italian musical tradition - the lyricism that stemmed from Rossini - than with making any specific statement about religious faith, but this wasn't a particularly Italianate performance.
Haitink's approach often seemed to be less to do with Mediterranean colour and passion than with a more sombre, inward-looking north European piety. Much of it was slow, thoughtful and precisely moulded: even the explosive outbursts of the Dies Irae did not carry their predictable impact. The chorus was generally restrained, and its best moments, like those of the whole performance, tended to come in the more reflective interludes.
Among the soloists, it was, paradoxically, the one non-Italian who stole the limelight: the young German mezzo Petra Lang. She produced singing of remarkable poise and careful phrasing. Roberto Scandiuzzi was a stylish and capable baritone, Franco Farina's tenor was efficient and well focused - not grating but not ingratiating either - while the soprano Paula Delligatti only really made her presence count in the final Libera Me. All rather low-key, really.
