Mirella Freni: Verdi - Requiem, ’Libera me’

Mirella Freni, birth name Mirella Fregni, (born 27 February 1935, Modena, Italy) is an Italian opera soprano whose repertoire includes Verdi, Puccini, Mozart and Tchaikovsky. Freni was married for many years to the Bulgarian bass Nicolai Ghiaurov, with whom she performed and recorded. She was awarded the Italian Cavaliere di Gran Croce and the French Légion d’honneur in March 1993. The University of Pisa awarded her an honorary degree in 2002 for her “great contribution to European culture... Lyrics & English translation Deliver me, O Heaven, from eternal death on that awful day, when the heavens and the earth shall be moved: when you will come to judge the world by fire. I tremble, and I fear the judgment and the wrath to come, when the heavens and the earth shall be moved. The day of wrath, that day of calamity and misery; a great and bitter day, indeed. Grant them eternal rest, O Heavens, and may perpetual light s