About the work
Messa da Requiem is an evening-length narrative ballet by Christian Spuck set to Giuseppe Verdi's Messa da Requiem. It was premiered by Ballett Zürich in 2016 at the Opernhaus Zürich, bringing dancers together with a large choir, vocal soloists and the Philharmonia Zürich in a single staged performance. Spuck translates Verdi's dramatic requiem mass into a danced meditation on transience, grief and consolation, in which dance and chorus share the stage as equals.
Plot
The work tells no continuous story but follows the liturgical dramaturgy of Verdi's Requiem — from its whispered opening through the shattering "Dies irae" to the fading "Libera me". In shifting tableaux, Spuck distils humankind's confrontation with death and finitude: mass scenes of terror stand beside intimate duets of tenderness, as chorus and dance ensemble merge into a single body of sound and movement suspended between fear, defiance and hope.
Cultural significance
Spuck's Messa da Requiem is considered one of the most striking examples of staging a great sacred choral work as choreography, and it has been widely revived internationally. By uniting chorus, orchestra, vocal soloists and a large dance ensemble on one stage, it pushes beyond the bounds of classical narrative ballet and helped establish Spuck — who became director of the Staatsballett Berlin in 2023 — as a master of symphonic dance theatre.