PALERMO – The conductor that the world envies us, Riccardo Muti, launches a heartfelt appeal in defense of Culture by speaking from the Teatro Massimo in Palermo at the conference on the theme “South – Projects to restart”. «I make an appeal – explains the maestro – for our theaters and for our musicians, who are the pride of our theater in the world but who now cry for many reasons. I’m talking about girls and boys who are literally starving today ».
«I speak from the Massimo theater in Palermo – adds Muti – which is an Italian excellence, where extraordinary people work. I’m talking about people who study in our conservatories and I remember that there are still regions where there is no orchestra or theater, and all this happens in Italy, the country of music. For example, who thinks now of the gangs that are the pride of Southern Italy? ».
Muti has been in Palermo for two days. A short stop at the hotel and first stop on the tomb of Frederick II in the Cathedral. The maestro is a true fan of the enlightened and innovative emperor, and has recently bought land not far from Castel del Monte in Puglia. The Stupor mundi boasted another name: “Child of Puglia” and it is plausible that the master from Puglia feels the call of the strong personality of the King of Sicily, protector of the arts and literature, with arrogance. And this is the point, a sovereign who loves law, but favors artists. Exactly what Riccardo Muti has been asking and looking for for at least 45 years. A wise housekeeper, who takes care of the immense value of cultural Made in Italy. He asks and asks for it, until he is exhausted, as he did this morning addressing the minister for the south, Mara Carfagna, in a video conference from the living room of the royal box of the Teatro Massimo.
Unheard until now, the teacher now sees a crack open. Italy has received much more from him than it has given him. But when you touch on the theme of his entire life, the education of young people, the teaching of music in all schools of all levels, the repeated request to stop the cuts in culture, the teacher is serious. During a performance of “Aida” at the Rome Opera, after the “Va Pensiero”, the audience asked for an encore that was granted, but first they turned to the audience to ask the government not to cut the funds to be allocated to the theaters, to schools, to museums.
Now, after a year of unheard of suffering for the Italians, Muti decided to cross the peninsula, from Bergamo, to Naples, to Palermo. For him, music united Italy in the darkest moments, indeed it just united it, and it certainly has a thaumaturgical power.
The Massimo Theater today hosts it with its youth orchestra, the Cherubini: Schubert’s Symphony No. 3 and Dvorak’s “From the New World” are on the program. They will be broadcast on Sunday 28 March at 11 am on the site of the theater, of Anfols, on that of ANSA as part of the ANSA project for Culture and on ravennafestival.live.
For Palermo it’s a party, the superintendent of the «Massimo» Francesco Giambrone, who is also president of Anfols, welcomed him with due honors. Today and tomorrow Muti is rehearsing with the Massimo orchestra. “I find you in great shape,” he said to the orchestras, during Verdi’s wonderful Requiem, a piece very dear to Muti, like the whole Verdi repertoire. The performance in the theater on Saturday 27 March, but the date of the live broadcast is yet to be confirmed. “From the theaters of the south – said the maestro – we must and can start again, create new orchestras, because music works miracles and is a gift to be given to everyone”.