Sunday Classics: Verdi blows the lid off the whole Krap Kristian hypocrisy

Mezzo Agnes Baltsa really pounds home the looming threat of the "written book" that contains the record of all that each of us has to answer for. In the "Liber scriptus" of the Dies Irae ("Day of Wrath") of the Verdi Requiem, with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Vienna State Opera Concert Chorus, the Chorus of the Bulgarian National Opera (Sofia), and the Vienna Philharmonic, in this June 1984 film.

A written book shall be brought forth
in which all is recorded,
whence the world shall be judged.

Therefore, when the Judge shall be seated
nothing shall be held hidden any longer,
no wrong shall remain unpunished.

by Ken

I suppose it could be argued that people like Ronald Reagan and Dick Cheney and Donnie Rumsfeld and George W. "Chimpy the Prez" Bush and Scott Walker have thought they were doing the Lord's work. Maybe yes, maybe no. Surely all the banksters know what they've been getting away with. But then, sinners always come in two categories: those who are aware of their sins, and those who need to be made aware.

As I promised last night, today we zero in on two subsections of the Dies Irae section of the Verdi Requiem, the "Liber scriptus," sung by the mezzo soloist, and the "Ingemisco," sung by the tenor -- sections that seem to me to drive home to anyone capable of shame the simple principle that we are all answerable for our actions.


The young Luciano Pavarotti sings the daylights out of the "Ingemisco" from the Verdi Requiem, from Karajan's earlier (1967) video recording with La Scala forces. Even as Pavarotti's singing became lazier and more whorish -- over most of the years of his greatest celebrity -- the Verdi Requiem always seemed to bring him back to his roots.

I groan as one who is accused;
guilt reddens my cheek;
spare Thy supplicant, O God.

Thous who absolved Mary,
and harkened to the thief,
and hast given me hope.

My prayers are worthless,
but Thou who art good and kind,
rescue me from everlasting fire.

With Thy sheep give me a place,
and from the goats keep me separate,
placing me at Thy right hand.

FOR MORE OF THE "LIBER SCRIPTUS"
AND "INGEMISCO," CLICK HERE

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