by Francesco Meucci
It risks being an overused term, but this is certainly one of the rare occasions in which we cannot say we have exaggerated: world-wide. Exactly, the event that the city of Lucca is preparing to experience on Friday 28 June will start from the tree-lined city, but will then end up entering millions of homes spread across the five continents thanks to the live broadcast ensured by Rai worldwide.
The title of the great event is “Puccini according to Muti”, an evening in which the great conductor will find himself conducting from an exceptional stage such as that of the Lucca Summer Festival on the stands of the historic walls. The concert arrives somewhat as a privileged peak of a path carried out by the Ministry of Culture, the Municipality of Lucca and the Committee for Puccini celebrations, to which the Teatro del Giglio has lent itself as a “humble but professional handmaiden”, in the words of its sole director Giorgio Angelo Lazzarini, and began a year ago with the Beatrice Venezi concert in Piazza Napoleone. “The evening of 28 June is the culmination of over a year of activity of the Puccini Committee – explains the sole administrator of the Teatro del Giglio, Giorgio Angelo Lazzarini – and which began a year ago with the concert by Beatrice Venezi and which in the following months seen passing through our Zubin Mehta theatre, the La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra, the Wiener Philharmoniker and the BFO – Budapest Festival Orchestra”.
However, in some ways, does the evening of June 28th allow us to take a further step?
“Of course, we are about to witness something of global significance; if only because Rai will broadcast it live and all over the world. It is clear that an event of this kind gives full credit to 2024 as the year of Puccini”.
Surely not an easy job?
“There were all the conditions for it to get this far and each of the forces in the field did their part to the best of their ability. A fundamental role was played by the undersecretary for culture Gianmarco Mazzi, to whom my thanks go, who was the first he believed in this event and put all his skills and expertise into play.”
The city stands out as a protagonist in all of this.
“Yes, starting from the fact that maestro Alberto Veronesi decided, given the great importance of the event for our city, to assign a delegation for the organization and management of the concert on 28 June to the mayor, Mario Pardini, which in turn has decided to involve the Teatro del Giglio, it is up to us to maintain relations with the Cherubini Foundation – both for Maestro Muti and for the Orchestra – also because historically we have excellent relations with the Teatro di Ravenna. , the city where the orchestra founded by Muti is based. Furthermore, as Teatro del Giglio, we also deal with the contracts relating to the singers, the sopranos Eleonora Buratto, Lidia Fridman, Mariangela Sicilia and the tenors Luciano Ganci, Dmitry Korchak and Francesco Meli”.
On the other hand, we are talking about an exceptional name such as that of Maestro Muti.
“Well, let’s take into account that his presence is also a further consecration of the event. We are talking about the greatest orchestra conductor who decided to pay homage to Puccini in the centenary year in the city where the maestro was born. For lovers of opera, for music lovers and for the whole city, therefore, this concert represents, in addition to the event itself, also a document that will remain in history as a fundamental moment for the reading and re-reading of Puccini’s music”.
What is your conclusion?
“Inviting everyone not to miss this historic event to be able to say that I was also there to celebrate our Giacomo Puccini live on a truly unique occasion with maestro Riccardo Muti”.
