Maestro Muti conducts the Cherubini Orchestra in Lucca for the concert dedicated to Puccini
A worldwide tribute 100 years after the death of Giacomo Puccini. The highlight of a 2024 marked by the genius of Lucca master celebrated on Rai3 in prime time. On the podium the maestro Riccardo Muti to lead “his” Cherubini orchestrafounded by him 20 years ago.
A concert event not only for the audience 20 million viewers which, thanks to the small screen, has turned out to be much wider than the 6 thousand seated under the stars, a stone’s throw from the walls of Lucca. Among the audience was the Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiulianothe president of the Region Eugenio Giani and the director too Peter Greenway and the actor Dustin Hoffman.
Puccini 100, the highlight of the celebrations
“Puccini according to Muti” the title already promised the concert signed by Committee for Puccini celebrations. A promise kept with a repertoire that is anything but predictable, selected by the conductor. Here are some famous arias, one above all: Nobody Sleepswere left out.
The concert was managed and organized by Municipality of Lucca with the collaboration of the Teatro del Giglio, Rai Cultura, Siae, on the stage made available by Lucca Summer Festival and ‘D’Alessandro e Galli’under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture.
A selected repertoire for a stellar cast
During the evening the arias of the works by Puccini. High-level cast to compete with from Un bel dì vedremo from Madama Butterfly (soprano, Eleonora Buratto) to the Recondita armonia of Tosca (tenor, Luciano Hooks), then Che gelida manina from La bohème (tenor, Dmitry Korchak), I lived on art from Tosca (Eleonora Buratto); Let her believe me from La fanciulla del West (tenor, Francesco Meli).
Executed Manon Lescaut’s Interlude and the Symphonic prelude. The soprano Mariangela Sicily she played Donde lieta and the soprano Lydia Friedman protagonist again with Meli in the interpretation of the fourth year of Manon Lescaut. The tenor Luciano Hooks he received acclaim for his performance of E lucean le stelle from Tosca.
Puccini according to Muti in Lucca, the maestro with Serena Autieri
Muti: Puccini and the Metronome of the Heart
Hosting the evening, broadcast live worldwide on Rai3, Serena Autieri who, in the name of Naples, brought out the Neapolitan soul of maestro Muti during an exchange of jokes on stage. “Puccini was extremely rigorous, very meticulous, precise in his metronomes. Without forgetting the metronome of the heart, which is what he commands. Which doesn’t mean working your butt off, as is usually done, because that would hurt a pillar of music. We must find profound expression while respecting the scores. Puccini was a man who loved life. If he hadn’t done it he wouldn’t have written what he wrote. If he was a Buddhist monk he would have written something else. With all due respect to the Buddhist monks” said director Riccardo Muti in Lucca.
The twentieth anniversary of the Cherubini orchestra
The maestro then remembered the twentieth anniversary ofCherubini orchestra in Lucca in an extra-large formation with 123 musicians, founded to transmit teaching to young musicians. “I founded this orchestra because I wanted to do something for my country. I say this out of pride in belonging to our great country. I told myself that before these things I had learned from my teachers and that are not in the books, disappear with them, I must pass them on to others.”Muti stressed.
“I say it all over the world, I come from the San Pietro a Majella conservatory and the Verdi conservatory in Milan, okay? Then, seeing that I know how to do something, they made me an academic here and there. -he stressed-. What I learned from my teachers, from Antonino Votto, who was Toscanini’s assistant at La Scala, from orchestras all over the world, but also from the small provincial ones, I want to teach the kids, not only elements of music, but above all the ethical, moral, professional attitude of being in an orchestra without being subjected to the authority, the authoritativeness of the conductor”.
Cherubini, the best of Italian youth
Muti pointed to the Cherubini musicians saying that “These guys represent some of the best of Italian youth and are second to none”then expanding the discussion, the great director said that if “the media would deal with the beautiful flowers that Italy produces and not with the negative things…”then he reported a Chinese saying according to which “it is by dint of thinking about flowers that flowers grow“. Muti said he met a little group of young people that a Scampia “they gather in a room to make music to free themselves from the evil that surrounds them, in that room flowers grow. Why does no one talk about it?
A tribute to Puccini, a moment of pride for Lucca
“Puccini is a great composer, recognized at all latitudes, his works are always performed all over the world. In the year of the centenary of his death it is right to pay homage to him – commented the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano – We are strongly committed to this concert. Italian opera singing is one of the most important expressions of our national identity.”
For Lucca, the evening was a moment of pride for the city, which wore its best dress to pose in front of everyone’s eyes. “We are thrilled, it is a show that will make history – declared the mayor satisfied Mario Pardini – We expect Lucca to be what it has already confirmed in facts, that is, a capital of culture, a place where magical events that remain milestones can be held”.
