War Requiem

I saw Benjamin Britten's War Requiem tonight. I wasn't feeling so well, so I didn't enjoy at as much as I should have, but it was quite good. And I am feeling much better now, so I can think back on it with happily enough. I'd never heard it before, but it was a real feast for the ears, with the Latin for the Mass for the Dead interspersed with Wilfred Owen's English poetry reflecting on World War I. Owen is best known for his graphic poem Dulce et Decorum Est, which you can read here.

Uplifting? Mostly depressing, but in a way uplifting with the return to “Kyrie, Kyrie, Elison.” Beautiful. And it sounded like paradise at the end though when the choirs were singing and (in as much as I could tell), I believe the soldier had arrived in heaven.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine:
et lux perpetua luceat eis.

It is a blessing to have a symphony of the caliber of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in this town.