Musicologist David Rosen calls it "probably the most frequently performed major choral work composed since the compilation of Mozart's Requiem".

He pointed to Mariani's lack of enthusiasm for the project, although in fact the conductor had been a part of the organising committee and did his best to support Verdi,[7] this episode marked the beginning of the end of their friendship.

The composition remained unperformed until 1988, when Helmuth Rilling premiered the complete Messa per Rossini in Stuttgart, Germany, presented at festivals and recorded.

[10] Verdi himself conducted, and the four soloists were Teresa Stolz (soprano), Maria Waldmann (mezzo-soprano), Giuseppe Capponi (tenor) and Ormondo Maini [it] (bass).

[14] The Requiem was reportedly performed approximately 16 times between 1943 and 1944 by prisoners in the concentration camp of Theresienstadt (also known as Terezín) under the direction of Rafael Schächter.

[19] In 2011, Oper Köln premiered a full staging by Clemens Bechtel where the four main characters were shown in different life and death situations: the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a Turkish writer in prison, a young woman with bulimia, and an aid worker in Africa.

[24] Carus-Verlag published a version in 2013 for a small ensemble of horn, double bass, gran cassa, timpani, marimba and piano, edited by Michael Betzner-Brandt, in order to make the music accessible for more choirs.

[25] Verdi structured the liturgical text in movements as follows;[6][25] Differently from traditional settings of the Requiem mass, he assigned several parts to one soloist.

[1][27] The work begins with the introit, with muted cellos and later all strings playing a slow descending motif in A minor, into which the choir mutters in low register the prayer for eternal rest.

[28] The Dies irae begins, evoking Last Judgment in "thunderous chords, a jagged rising phrase, a wailing chant lurching backwards and forwards, giant bass-drum blows on the offbeat, precipitous woodwind scales, strings tremolando, uprushes of violins, and rapid rhythmic figures splayed out by the trumpets".

"Rex tremendae" alternates a "majestic dotted theme" for the lower voices with a "wide-spanned phrase" salva me, building to a climax.

[28] After a return of Dies irae, "Lacrymosa" closes the sequence with a "desolate theme", repeated and each time orchestrated more densely, leading to a muted melancholic end.

The movement consists of variations of this theme, harmonised in soft colours, with a calm counterpoint of three flutes, alternating between the soloists and the choir.

[28] In the "Libera me", the oldest music by Verdi in the Requiem, the soprano soloist interacts with the choir for the prayer "Deliver me, Lord, from eternal death ... when you will come to judge the world by fire".

The soprano repeats the first "Libera me",[28] calling the choir to an agitated four-part fugue[28][1] that illustrates the shattering of the world by fire, with a "devastating climax".

[28] The soprano finally mutters a two-fold "Libera me" on a single low note, ever softer, interpreted as "a prayer as much for the living as for the dead".

[29] As to the quality of the music, the critical consensus agreed that the work displayed "fluent invention, beautiful sound effects and charming vocal writing".

Critics were divided between praise and condemnation with respect to Verdi's willingness to break standard compositional rules for musical effect, such as his use of consecutive fifths.