In 2008 Mexican soprano Maria Katzarava was the winner of the Opera and Zarzuela category of Operalia, and has subsequently performed at opera houses around the world. In 2010 she made her debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Juliette in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette under the baton of Daniel Oren, and has since performed the same role at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona and with the Opéra de Lausanne and the Florida Grand Opera.

She has worked with conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Daniel Oren and Gustavo Dudamel, and recent projects have included Verdi’s Don Carlo at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, where she appeared with Plácido Domingo, and Puccini’s Tosca at the Royal Swedish Opera. Forthcoming engagements include her debut in the title role of Verdi’s Aida at the Royal Swedish Opera, and the role of Lucrezia Contarini in I due Foscari at the Festival Verdi in Parma.

Verdi dominated the world of Italian opera from his first considerable success in 1842 with Nabucco until his final Shakespearean operas Otello, staged at La Scala, Milan in 1887, and Falstaff, mounted at the same opera house in 1893. His career coincided with the rise of Italian nationalism and the unification of the country, causes with which he was openly associated.

Operas

The best known of Verdi’s 28 operas are Nabucco (‘Nebuchadnezzar’), Macbeth, Rigoletto, Il trovatore, La traviata, Les Vêpres siciliennes (‘The Sicilian Vespers’), Simon Boccanegra, Un ballo in maschera (‘A Masked Ball’), La forza del destino (‘The Force of Destiny’), Don Carlo, Aida, Otello and Falstaff.

Church Music

In addition to settings of the Te Deum and the Stabat Mater Verdi wrote an impressive large-scale setting of the Requiem, its origin stemming from the death of Rossini in 1868 and the death of the writer Manzoni. The Requiem is a work of operatic magnificence, none the less moving for its theatrical elements.

The Quattro pezzi sacri (‘Four Sacred Pieces’) were written at various times in Verdi’s later years. The first, Ave Maria sulla scala enigmatica, written in 1889, was followed in publication by Stabat mater, Laudi alla Vergine Maria (on a text from Dante), and Te Deum for double chorus and orchestra. The Quattro pezzi sacri were published in 1898.