ConcertPulse
Ollikainen & Stoyanova
»The omnipotent corruptor of taste in Italy.« »Immaturity, tastelessness, and ugliness.« Quite some impudence, what Verdi heard from Wagner conductor Hans von Bülow in 1874. Another critic found: »After all, isn’t the Italian entitled to ask whether he is allowed to speak Italian with God?« And for Verdi, this is how speaking with God about death in Italian goes: happy for some theatrics, but the Mass should by no means sound »like an opera«. Whether he succeeded—everyone will have to judge for themselves.