Verdi’s Messa da requiem has an interesting story. It started with a cooperation of 13 Italian composers, who were to compose together a mass in honour of Rossini—Verdi prepared then the part called “Libera me.” Unfortunately the project was abandoned (the world premiere of Messa per Rossini was conducted as late as 1988!), but “Libera me” was saved. Verdi put it into a new requiem, that he began to write after the death of a poet Alessandro Manzoni and it was dedicated to him. The beautiful requiem breaks the rules and shows dramatism and momentum known from Verdi’s operas, which are the very qualities that differentiate the work from other funeral hymns.