Awestruck, Verdi wrote to his close friend, Countess Clarina Maffei, "How can I describe the extraordinary, indefinable sensation the presence of that Saint, as you call him, produced in me? I would have knelt in front of him, if one could adore a man." Both men were staunch supporters of Italian unification - and national cultural heroes. "Besides being a book," wrote Verdi, "it is a comfort to humanity as well." The two men met only once, in 1868. Its combination of romantic drama and liberal religious feeling had a strong appeal to Verdi's generation. His novel I promessi sposi (known in English as "The Betrothed") became an instant classic. Verdi revered the poet Alessandro Manzoni.
During spring of 1873, however, Verdi changed his mind. Additionally, after the recent premiere of Aida he had begun to contemplate retirement. Verdi replied that Mazzucato's praise and encouragement had almost tempted him to write a complete requiem but it would be "pointless" to add yet another Requiem to a very full canon of sacred music. In 1871 Alberto Mazzucato, Director of the Milan Conservatory and contributing composer to the Messa per Rossini, wrote to Verdi in praise of his Libera me movement. The Messa per Rossini was shelved and Verdi moved on to other endeavors.
Because of political forces working against the production, the performance never took place. The mass was completed and to be performed in Bologna, the city with which Rossini was most closely associated.
Verdi himself would provide the final Libera me movement. In his memory Verdi proposed a requiem mass, with each movement to be provided by a different leading composer of Italy. When our other glory, Manzoni, is no more, what will be left to us?" asked Verdi in 1868 upon the passing of the great Italian composer.
In 1868 the death of the great Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini led Giuseppe Verdi to reflect: "Rossini's reputation was the glory of Italy.
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