Word: requiems
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Last Saturday his wishes were honored. At his muted, dignified open-air requiem Mass in St. Peter's Square there was no ornate catafalque. The ceremony had a certain grandeur nonetheless, flowing from those who came to pay homage: the more than 100,000 worshipers and the dignitaries from 104 nations, including Rosalynn Carter from the U.S., U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim and hosts of high government officials and diplomats. Leaders of the "separated brethren" also attended, led by retired Archbishop of Canterbury A. Michael Ramsey. A folio of the four Gospels lay open on the plain coffin as Carlo...
...begins Requiem per una Spia (Requiem for a Spy), a tantalizing espionage yarn that was no sooner published in Italy last week than it drew critical praise for the authenticity of its Vatican and U.N. settings. Small wonder: the author is Monsignor Alberto Giovannetti, 65, a retired papal diplomat of 30 years standing. The stout, deceptively cherubic Giovannetti was the Holy See's observer to the U.N. for nine years; he obviously knows as much about the murky subterfuge that pervades the corridors of the U.N. as Jacques Cousteau knows about the deep...
...that Giovannetti is, or ever was, a spy. Nevertheless, the monsignor readily admits that Requiem for a Spy, which he describes as "part autobiographical" and "part political fantasy," is a roman à clef based on his long experience and his personal acquaintance with a number of spies he has known, if not always loved. "I knew all the spies in the U.N. organization itself, but they were not up to much," he says. "The big spies are in the various delegations. In any case the book is not based on any particular episode, and there is no real model...
Only a week before he died, Humphrey told a friend that he did not want his requiem to be a morose spectacle. Said he: "Let's make it a celebration." It was certainly that-a rousing encomium to Hubert Humphrey...
...York Philharmonic gave the world premiere of Star-Child, a 33-minute parable for soprano, solo trombone, boy choristers and large-very large-orchestra by American Composer George Crumb. Gimmickry aside, Star-Child turned out to be a work of immense power, daring and, at times, even horror. A requiem of sorts drawn primarily from two anonymous medieval texts, Dies Irae and Massacre of the Innocents, Star-Child is imbued with the same Blake-like contrast of innocence and evil that characterizes much of Crumb's other work, notably Ancient Voices of Children and Black Angels...