The great music of Giacomo Puccini resonates in his city, Lucca. In the greenery of the historic walls, the arias of the operas that have toured the world and then always returned here, home, have lulled even the most restless soul. From Turandot, to Madama Butterfly, from La bohème to Tosca. The splendid and powerful voices of the sopranos Eleonora Buratto, Lidia Fridman and Mariangela Sicilia, of the tenors Luciano Ganci, Dmitry Korchak and Francesco Meli; accompanied by the “Cherubini” orchestra, masterfully conducted by its founder, Riccardo Muti, have given a magical moment to the city and beyond. Over 6,000 spectators attended this evening’s “Puccini according to Muti” concert. A great event, broadcast live worldwide on Rai3 with Serena Autieri as host, which celebrates the maestro from Lucca on the centenary of his death, and pays homage to Italian opera in general, recently recognized as an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO, with the gigantic direction of Muti. The concert is the highlight of the event organized by the Committee for the Puccini celebrations, born in 2022 with the specific aim of promoting the figure and places of Puccini and therefore close to dissolution, which in recent years has found itself at the center of various controversies regarding the president Alberto Veronesi. Controversies that could not help but calm down in front of the beauty of Italian opera. Managed and organized by the Municipality of Lucca with the collaboration of the Teatro del Giglio, Rai Cultura, Siae, on the stage made available by Lucca Summer Festival and by ‘D’Alessandro e Galli’, with the patronage of the MiC. “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”. When asked if he was satisfied with the work done by the committee in recent years, Minister Sangiuliano replied: “We are satisfied with the work done in the name of Puccini”. Tonight was undoubtedly a moment of pride for the city, which wore its best clothes to pose for everyone to see. “We are excited, it is a show that will make history – said Mayor Mario Pardini with satisfaction – We expect Lucca to be what it has already confirmed in the facts, that is, a capital of culture, a place where magical events can be held that remain milestones”. Returning to the present, the concert attracted prominent figures from the national political sphere and beyond to the city: among the audience, together with Minister Sangiuliano, also Undersecretary Gianmarco Mazzi, the President of the Constitutional Court, Augusto Antonio Barbera, the Secretary General of the Court, Umberto Zingales, the President of Tuscany Eugenio Giani. Dustin Hoffman also enjoyed the event, away from the spotlight, accompanied by director Peter Greenaway who recently finished shooting his latest film in Lucca and with Hoffman.
Video Sangiuliano: ‘Muti directing the Puccini concert-event is magical’
“Puccini was extremely rigorous, meticulous, precise in his metronomes. Without forgetting the metronome of the heart, which is what commands. Which does not mean going too far, as one usually does, because that would harm a column of music. You have to find the profound expression while respecting the scores. Puccini was a man who loved life. If he hadn’t done so, he wouldn’t have written what he wrote. If he had been a Buddhist monk, he would have written something else. With all due respect to Buddhist monks”. Thus the director Riccardo Muti in Lucca, during an interval of the concert tribute to Giacomo Puccini. Further on, after other performances of famous Puccinian arias, maestro Riccardo Muti spoke again in another interruption to praise and explain the experience of the Cherubini orchestra founded about 20 years ago to transmit teaching to young musicians. “I founded this orchestra because I wanted to do something for my country. I say it out of pride in belonging to our great country”, said Muti, and “I say it all over the world, I come from the conservatory of San Pietro a Majella and the Verdi conservatory in Milan, okay? Then since I know how to do something, they made me an academic here and there.” “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 small provincial ones, I want to teach to kids – Riccardo Muti stated on the stage in Lucca -, not only elements of music, but above all the ethical, moral, professional attitude of being in an orchestra” which “must not submit to the authority, the authoritativeness of the director”. Muti recalled that he decided to found the Cherubini orchestra – here in Lucca in a ‘large’ formation of 123 elements – when he realized that his points of reference in music would disappear with their unwritten knowledge, their experience . “I told myself that before these things, which aren’t in the books, disappear with them – said Muti – I have to pass them on to others”. Muti indicated the Cherubini musicians saying that “these guys represent part of the best of Italian youth and are second to none”, then expanding the discussion, the great director said that if “the media dealt with the beautiful flowers that the ‘Italy produces and not 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 small group of young people who in Scampia “gather in a room to make music to free themselves from the evil that surrounds them, flowers grow in that room. Why doesn’t anyone talk about it?”.
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