Opera Chic, proud owner of a first-generation 2001 iPod, who glumly looks down upon most mp3-playing newbies, cannot help to be moved by this great moment in last Sunday's Il Sole 24 Ore interview with Riccardo Muti:
"iPod? What's that?"
asked il maestro, clearly baffled by the interviewer's mention of the thing.
Riccardo Muti who is about to introduce Cimarosa's lost opera, Il Ritorno di Don Calandrino to the world again at the Pentecost Festival in Salzburg (May 25), has spoken to the paper about many topics: the future of classical music, the ills of a intellectual approach to music, his surprising love for Ennio Morricone and Paolo Conte, his eternal love for Naples and Vienna, "capitali della musica", his hobby of restoring ancient trulli in the Southern region of Puglia, little peasant shacks with cone-shaped stone roofs, and soccer.
Let's see.
Muti on the iPod: "Cos'è?"
Muti on Morricone: "I know him well, I had the pleasure to conduct the premiere of his Voci Dal Silenzio. He is without a doubt one of the world's contemporary best composers".
Muti on classical music: "Too many stuffed shirts regard concerts as a ceremony, the so-called 'experts' who strike terror in regular people's hearts, in the hearts of people who go to concerts for the emotional experience. Those so-called experts are glum people, they wear black clothes and black sunglasses. They only know form, they don't know the heart of a symphony. They X-ray the score and keep audiences away. As Dante explained in Paradiso, we approach the art of music with rapture, not with understanding".
Muti on pop music: "I listen to some of it, with my three kids. But I confess I couldn't name precisely the most popular singers nowadays. But I appreciate Paolo Conte, I listen to him very happily".
Muti on his favorite cities: "Vienna, where music seems to soak the streets. But Naples has everything to become the capital city of Italian music. I chose to live in Ravenna because it's my wife's hometown, quiet and nice. I don't like parties".
Muti on his holidays in Puglia: "I have a strong feeling for the South of Italy, my roots are there. I chose to restore a cluster of trulli in Castel Del Monte, between Bari and Foggia, keeping their original style. Very few embellishments. I kept the rough stone upon which sheep herders used to sleep. The region's governor Nichi Vendola came to see me and appreciated how we managed to keep the nature untouched".
Muti on soccer: "In my home everybody roots for Juventus, but I am a Naples fan".
