The Oscarsborg Opera
Circus Requiem Giuseppe Verdi

Under the open sky at Oscarsborg outside Drøbak, we together with Oscarsborg Opera present Sirkus Requiem – a brand-new interpretation of Verdi’s Requiem, combining his powerful music with contemporary circus. Welcome to an audiovisual performance featuring aerial acrobatics and music unlike anything previously seen at Oscarsborg.

All the way from the Middle Ages, requiems were composed in memory of royalty, nobility, and other high-ranking individuals. It was not until the 19th century that certain artists also attained such high status that they could be deemed worthy of this honor. 

Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) was a great admirer of his contemporary Italian author, Alessandro Manzoni. Verdi supposedly became speechless the one time he met his great idol .

Manzoni’s novel The Betrothed from 1827 was the first book to reach a large reading audience across all of Italy. The novel played a crucial role in the standardization of modern Italian, and Manzoni became a key figure in the Risorgimento–the movement that fought for a unified Italy.

Verdi’s Requiem was ready for its premiere at the San Marco Church in Milan on the first anniversary of Manzoni’s death. Just a few days later, it was staged at La Scala Opera in the same city. Soon after, it was performed at Opéra-Comique in Paris and the Royal Albert Hall in London. 

Verdi had a Catholic background and used the Latin texts from the funeral mass in his composition. Nevertheless, the work was criticized as “an opera in requiem clothing” and deemed unsuitable for liturgical use. However, in the concert hall, Verdi’s Requiem has become one of the most popular works in its genre.