Les Épopées & Dijon Opera Choir

The testament of a genius, shrouded in a captivating legend: the story behind the composition of Mozart’s Requiem has played as much a part in its enduring popularity as the sheer beauty of the music itself. Here, the Mass for the Dead becomes a passage into eternity.

In 1791, exhausted from work, Mozart received a mysterious anonymous commission: a requiem—later believed to be intended for Count Walsegg. Ill and soon confined to his bed, Mozart died on 5 December without finishing the score. His pupil, Franz Xaver Süßmayr, completed the work based on Mozart’s sketches.

Les Épopées, a vocal ensemble equally at home in sacred music and Baroque and Classical opera, is ideally suited to this Mass for the Dead, in which Mozart imbues every page with profound expressive intensity. Led by its music director, Stéphane Fuget, the ensemble returns to Dijon after last season’s performance of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, once again joining forces with the Dijon Opera Choir.

The program pairs the Requiem with choral works by Beethoven and Schubert, infused with a quiet, contemplative spirituality and sense of consolation.

Musical Director Stéphane Fuget

Soprano Marie Perbost
Alto Isabelle Druet  
Tenor Juan Sancho Martínez de Carvajal 
Bass Luc Bertin-Hugault

Dijon Opera Choir
Choir director Lucile de Trémiolles

^{Photo Les Épopées © Pascal Le Mée
Photo Chœur de l’Opéra de Dijon © Mirco Magliocca}

Ludwig van Beethoven
Elegischer Gesang, op. 118

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Messe de Requiem en ré mineur, KV 626

Franz Schubert  
Chor der Engel D 440