The Rhetoric of Verdi’s Requiem: Reading the Libretto in Three Contexts

In this module, students will engage in close readings of excerpts of the Verdi Requiem libretto considering how the same words sung in different contexts can yield different meanings. Using the elements of rhetorical situations as a starting place (text, speaker, audience, purpose, and setting), students will study the meaning of the libretto in three contexts: a Catholic funeral mass, a Jewish chorus singing for an audience of fellow imprisoned Jews in a Nazi ghetto, and a much-reduced Jewish chorus singing for an audience of Nazi authorities and members of the International Red Cross sent to inspect the Terezín ghetto in the final year of the war.