His baton once led the world’s most demanding orchestras: London, Salzburg, New York, or Chicago, and even the Vienna Philharmonic at its traditional New Year’s Concert. But Riccardo Muti still had one very special concert left to conduct: that of the Opera Prison in Milan.
RICCARDO MUTI
Conductor
For me, this experience has been an extraordinary surprise. Of course, I accepted the invitation to come here to play music for the inmates of the Opera prison, but I did not imagine I would find such a warm atmosphere on the part of those who guard those who are being guarded.
These instruments might have seemed unusual to them. They are made from a very special wood: that of the boats shipwrecked in Lampedusa. Those responsible for making them are inmates involved in prison pastoral programs.
RICCARDO MUTI
Conductor
They are the result of the work of inmates who have become passionate about the art of violin making. Some of these instruments have already been used in Lampedusa, when we held the Concert of Friendship there, the concert on that island, with Sollima, who took part as a cellist and used one of these instruments built from the tragic wood of those boats that were trying to carry people toward salvation and democracy.
At this concert, Muti conducted the Cherubini Orchestra. Among the audience was a choir made up of inmates and volunteers.
This initiative is promoted by the “House of the Spirit and the Arts,” a foundation that seeks to place human dignity at the center of arts.
CA
Trans. CRT
