The DaMuti Code: aka, Salzburg Like Naples -- The Riccardo Muti Project
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Maestro Muti, back in Milan today, took part at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana -- the beyond-awesome library where the Codex Atlanticus by Leonardo da Vinci is kept -- in the official press conference for the Pentecost Festival in Salzburg of which he is the director. The Italian maestro, proud of his Neapolitan origins, will bring obscure -- and even forgotten -- baroque masterpieces (operas and oratori) to Salzburg in May.
Because, see, Maestro Muti got all Indiana-Jones like, and he has discovered "new" (aka lost) works by Scarlatti, Cimarosa and Paisiello and will conduct those works with "his kids", the young Orchestra Cherubini. Having spent months in the old library and archives of the Girolamini Monastery in Naples, and in the Conservatorio of San Pietro a Maiella, and having pored over autograph manuscripts by Alessandro Scarlatti, Leonardo Leo, Donato Ricchezza, Niccolò Jommelli, Francesco Feo and other Neapolitan composers, Muti can now proudly introduce a unique music festival.
The most interesting jewels that will be performed in Salzburg on May 25 are Cimarosa's Il ritorno di don Calandrino (1778), and a two-hour oratorio by Muti's beloved Alessandro Scarlatti.
The opera will be later introduced to Italian audiences (in Ravenna -- December -- and Piacenza) and, from 2008 on, in Russia (St. Petersburg) and France (Paris).
The maestro has also slammed Italy: "I've found more enthusiasm for this project abroad than here in Italy. I still think that great culture makes Europe more united, but for this festival I've found more interest in Austria than I've found here. But then -- he observed bitterly -- I'm a dumb idealist".
* top photo: Bruegel's Naval Battle in the Gulf of Naples, Galleria Doria-Pamphili, Rome
Thank you so much for the very, very interesting news!
It is so detailed than the news in the ANSA.
Did you attend the conference, too?
I enjoy reading your blog every day!!!
Posted by:bravo.muti | February 23, 2007 at 11:22 PM
psssst... we don't wanna blow Intrepid Reporter Girl's cover do we???
:)
Posted by:Opera Chic | February 24, 2007 at 12:36 AM
Ciao, I have read the articles about this press conference.
They says his fans were in the room, too.
And one asked Maestro Muti.
Maestro, ti vogliamo a Milano!
Might it be your question!!!???
Posted by:bravo.muti | February 24, 2007 at 10:58 AM
what? nope, Opera Chic is a very professional amateur blogger!
Posted by:Opera Chic | February 24, 2007 at 09:18 PM