Lacrymosa from Verdi Requiem: 9/11 Memorial Concert

Today (Sept. 11) marks the anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. An outdoor memorial concert of Verdi's Manzoni Requiem was to take place exactly a year later, in open air across the river with lower Manhattan in full view. But due to impending rain, the concert was cancelled and the dress rehearsal from the previous day ended up being telecast instead. It starred a superb quartet of soloists - soprano Sylvie Valayre, mezzo Dolora Zajick, tenor Salvatore Licitra, and bass Samuel Ramey. Zdenek Macal conducted the New Jersey Symphony and the Westminster Choir. It's doubly sad that tenor Licitra died Sept. 5 last year from massive injuries in a motorcycle accident while on vacation in Sicily.  So, to remember the victims of this sad event in history and to remember Salvatore Licitra, here is the Lacrymosa from that performance.

Joseph K. So