The ‘Opera in prison’ project of the Teatro Regio of Parma achieved the prestigious Abbiati ‘Filippo Siebaneck’ award assigned by the National Association of Music Critics, now in its 43rd edition. The regional guarantor of prisoners of Emilia-Romagna, Roberto Cavalieri, also participated in the ceremony, which was held in the Teatro Regio in Turin, in which a video was presented that recounts the work of prisoners over the last year. “Even in prison – commented the guarantor Cavalieri – excellent interventions can be carried out. The commitment of the Teatro Regio di Parma and the musician Gabriella Corsaro have made opera a vector of transformation and knowledge for around thirty inmates. An example of excellence and unprecedented penitentiary treatment.”
These are the motivations of the commission that decided to reward the Parma project: “To the Opera in prison project of the Teatro Regio of Parma, which, through the choral workshops held by Gabriella Corsaro and the artists and consistently with the principles set out in the ethical manifesto of the Teatro Regio di Parma as part of the Verdi Off programme, has made the opera a vehicle of civic and emotional involvement, of encounter, redemption, rediscovery of oneself and others”.
The Teatro Regio of Parma, as part of Verdi Off, has been promoting projects and workshops since 2016 to bring music to the city’s penitentiary institute, first with the works of Giuseppe Verdi then with those of Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti and other composers protagonists of the opera season in Parma. The project was further enriched with the presentation of the ethical manifesto of the Regio theater in Parma, a document developed and signed by the artists with whom the Regio collaborates, who are an active part of the workshops proposed in prison.
