Talking to Sarajevo.
He has undertaken to conduct the centenary concert of the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra in October and he will donate his fee to the city’s reconstruction.
It will be the maestro’s third working visit to the Bosnian capital and he will stay for three days,
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He must have good health. All the travel aged over 80.
In search for an audience.
totally.
Nah, just for a better audience
Say what you will he clearly still has ups worthy of a tryout with the Chicago Bulls.
“From America we import only negative things. It is like walking on eggshells, you have to be careful not to say this or that, every vague references can spark suspicion, offend, be used against you” Riccardo Muti in a Corriere della Sera interview, quoted by the Secolo d’Italia (a newspaper aligned with Italy’s neofascist parties) in the article “Riccardo Muti si rifiuta di cancellare la parola ‘negri’ dall’opera di Giuseppe Verdi” (“Muti refuses to cancel the N-word from Verdi’s opera”)
“With metoo, Mozart would be in jail” (Riccardo Muti)
“It is scientifically proven that when the cows listen to the music of Mozart, they make very good milk. When they listen to contemporary music or avant-garde music, they make acid milk. Or maybe ricotta, I don’t know.” (Riccardo Muti)
“There are valid right-wing men of culture. The left has had and will have intellectuals but in recent years it has not done much for widespread culture.”
““Too many foreigners in Italy […]”
Riccardo Muti in a recent interview on La Stampa, commenting on the cultural outlook of the country whose government is now led by neofascist parties. Translated in English by Italy24 news https://news.italy24.press/local/185447.html
“I once used the word oriental at a rehearsal in Chicago, and afterwards, during a break, I was politely pointed out, “Maestro, it would be better if you used the term asian instead of oriental.” I tried to explain that I wasn’t capable: ‘I’m sorry, I grew up with this word, for me the Orient is something wonderful. And besides, what am I if you’re Asian?’ The answer was, ‘You’re caucasian.’ Killed me. (laughs)” Riccardo Muti, quoted by Die Zeit in a recent September interview.
“The next time you go to a concert and see a conductor who moves more than is necessary, and opens his mouth like a shark, you have to boo.” (Riccardo Muti)
“So it is better that you can find yourself easily as you are, as you have been always – not to find yourself like a prostitute who has adapted a personality to the public of different cities.” Riccardo Muti quoted by the New York Times Magazine
Oh, so Muti was quoted in a newspaper you don’t like. I remember once Enver Hoxha spoke warmly about Mother Teresa. Then she must be a horrible person. Or is there a point well hidden in your post for noone to see?
Some of those comments are right on the money as far as the wokening of American culture in recent years.
Sure. Like the metoo comment. Right on the money, right? Only, Mozart wasn’t a rapist like Weinstein.
When you’ve worked for a company that seemed relatively normal for years, only to have it converted into a woke hell-scape that requires people who hold views that were the norm just a few years ago (essentially, everyone over 40) to walk on egg-shells out of fear of the “consequences” of saying the “wrong” thing, you can appreciate at least some of what he had to say there.
@ Paracelsus. Neither was Al Franken.
Far from being “vague references”, this old man’s statements are more often than not deliberately inflammatory and divisive, unworthy of the position of Music Director in any major American orchestra.
Furthermore, Muti is extremely disingenuous: he imports many positive things from America. According to this website, he imported “a salary of almost $3.5 million from the Chicago Symphony in the fiscal year ending July 2019”. (https://slippedisc.com/2021/06/muti-is-the-worlds-top-paid-conductor/). I’d say Muti’s balance of trade with America is a very rich one.
I’m sorry I grew up with the word EYE-talian, I’m not capable of saying it any other way, it means something special for me.
First of all, it’s the Midwest, and 40% of Illinosians voted for Trump, so they think the same thing as Muti anyway.
Second of all, most audience members of the CSO are from the suburbs of Chicago, so you’re not going to get that Chicago outrage.
Third of all, Muti is just not well known to register in the consciousness of Chicagoans. Riccardo Who? And he was speaking in Eye-talian about what?
Are all the thumbs down for LH or for Muti? Both maybe? I thumb down both, one for repeating himself, the other for the ludicrous statements.
There is no N-word in the libretto, which, you might have heard, is written in Italian. As surprising as it might sound, the meaning of words depends on the culture in which they are produced, which in this case originates a couple of millenia earlier than that you are expression of. Hence, let me use the occasion to reassure that also when the word is used in the second act “Di lassù, dai quei negri dirupi, il segnal de’ nemici partì”, there is no racist intent against those cliffs from where Riccardo’s enemies send signals.
I am just saying this in the hope that thinkers of your caliber would not demand a rewriting of Cicero, Lucretius, Dante, let alone Cervantes or Garcia Lorca.
Looking forward to Muti and CSO’s visit to Southern California next week!
In Costa Mesa.
Did you pay $358 plus the $40 service fee?
$398?
Anyone paying $398 for a Muti/CSO concert needs to urgently have her wheels checked.
Hopefully the CSO’s West Coast tour doesn’t get flooded out or attention preempted by recovery efforts throughout the state. Coming to California now and projecting a sene of empathy normalcy through music could certainly be a morale booster.
I have to wonder why 13 people find it necessary to down vote a comment like this. If you have a problem with Muti, just don’t read the “article”
It’s interesting that in their winter tour (which was originally supposed to be an Asia tour, then cancelled) the CSO is carefully avoiding any major auditorium, and will play all the concerts in secondary locations outside of the VIP tour circuit. Were they not invited to play at the Walt Disney Hall, or the Davies Symphony Hall? The BSO was criticized for not filling all the seats in Japan; the CSO does not even try to fill American best halls. Maybe the talk of decline under Muti is warranted.
This upcoming CSO tour was put together at the “last minute” as a substitute for the cancelled Asian tour during the same time period. Some of the major venues in several tour cities were simply not unavailable.
No matter what one may think of Muti, who wouldn’t be ‘looking forward’ to a guest visit! The C.S.O. is still one of the world’s major orchestras (I like Cleveland, Boston, N.Y. (now) and Philly more, but that’s not the point). I’m not crazy about the acoustics of Orchestra Hall, or some of their repertoire decisions. But still . . . . these people can play, so enjoy the show. . . . . (I wish I could have played in an orchestra even 1/5th as good).
If he borrowed Yuja’s stiletto heels, he wouldn’t have to jump.
Running out of runway in Chicago, the Italian Stallion is just desperate for attention.
Though the quote about prostitutes in the post section is profoundly ironic, and made me think about the recently rediscovered legendary pamphlet by Filippo Facci, where the well known journalist, quite some time ago, pointed out how Muti used to assert that only three orchestras in the world were “worth of mention: La Scala (he was there), Vienna (he was often there), and Philadelphia (he had been there).” We know that in Chicago he has been blabbering for 15 years that Chicago is the best orchestra; In London, he used to maintain that London was a capital of music and the Philarmonia was far superior to the LSO (we know who was conducting the LSO at the time). So much for adapting one’s personality to the public of different cities.
But back to the Filippo Facci pamphlet (ready here in Italian: https://www.wittgenstein.it/html/ext020405.html).
It is a fantastically fascinating read. I must confess my Italian is not what it used to be, so I will need the help of my Czech friend living in Milan to fully expound it. According to a 2022 piece by Filippo Facci (https://www.dagospia.com/rubrica-2/media_e_tv/ma-riccardo-muti-che-dice-stampa-ldquo-dobbiamo-puntare-piu-331677.htm), the April 2005 pamphlet, published in its entirety over three full pages on il Foglio, was the very article that prompted Muti’s final decision to resign from La Scala, after the vote of no confidence in him cast by the artistic and administrative personnel of that great theater. Il Foglio was directed at the time by the journalist and politician Giuliano Ferrara, who had founded it and had been previously editor of Panorama (owned by Berlusconi’s Mondadori) and Minister for Parliament in the first Berlusconi cabinet in 1994/1995. According to Facci, when Muti saw this piece printed, he understood that his political cover, guaranteed to him during his La Scala tenure by Berlusconi’s Mediaset in Milan and especially by Berlusconi’s right hand Confalonieri, had all but evaporated. He decided to finally quit.
After a first cursory scan of the pamphlet, aided by Google Translate, I already found a few gems (which I cannot independently verify):
– “The Israeli conductor Zubin Metha, in Tokyo, in the presence of one journalist from Il Giornale and another one from La Nazione, said he would have never invited Muti to a party as ‘Muti has no friends’ ”
– “The opera lover and judge Renato Caccamo talked of a veto [by Muti] against Riccardo Chailly and Daniele Gatti [i.e., not allowed to conduct operas at La Scala under Muti’s reign]”
– “An orchestra musicians talked about a denial issued even to a Carlos Kleiber who wanted to do Otello at La Scala”
“… denial of Muti towards the President of the Republic who had asked for the national anthem (to be played)”.
“… called to Bruxelles to conduct a concert for the Euro, faced by a request to conduct the European anthem, he answered ‘I don’t conduct a band on demand’. After the Sunday Times had defined some Muti interpretations ‘of poor quality’ (not to mention the rejections of the New York Times) Muti deserted a British Festival hosted by Blair”
I will study the pamphlet carefully and report back on any additional nuggets.
Don’t bother to report back.
The “pamphlet” is more like a book. Norman Lebrecht is mentioned in it, but I don’t understand Italian. And there is an apparent reference to the Kremlin. Can someone translate? Is this really the original article, can you post the original link to Il Foglio?
Carlos Kleiber conducted ‘Otello’ at La Scala in 1987 at the invitation of Riccardo Muti.
Very doubtful. Given that two heavy hitters like Zeffirelli and Kleiber did that production, and that Muti became MD in 1986, that Otello must have been already in the plans a couple of years before it happened, and not done at Muti’s behest. The long tenure of Muti at La Scala was marked by the absence of great conductors in the opera pit, just like his tenure in Chicago where Thielemann was allowed to show up only when Muti is on his way out.
No. This is simply untrue. Muti has wanted Thielemann to visit Chicago since the very beginning of his tenure in 2010 (as cited below).
https://music.newcity.com/2022/10/21/remarkable-return-a-conversation-with-maestro-christian-thielemann-upon-his-return-to-chicago-after-more-than-twenty-years/
The two have known each other for many years and are respectful colleagues/friends. Don’t try to invent some crazy drama up when, in reality, there is none.
From the commenters here, not one nice word for Muti’s gift of his fee towards Sarajevo’s reconstruction.
Well, I will say, what a kind, generous thing to do. Thank you, Maetro Muti!
Hi Margaret, indeed. This site should modify its name into BrokenDisc, at least when it posts something related to Muti. Independently of the topic, the comments are always the same, recycled from post to post signaling their authors’ desperation to gain credibility by repetition.
What makes it particularly egregious in this specific case is the hypocrisy of the US-based commenters who clearly don’t give a damn about Sarajevo, at the same time in which they fill their mouths with expressions of support for Kiev. My bet is that we will need to wait for a visit of Muti to Kiev to support the reconstruction at the end of this bloody war to realize they don’t give a damn about it either.
There are four things which trouble the anti-Muti band:
– he is more talented than they are
– he is better paid
– he is more attractive to women
– he is vastly more generous
uh … five actually; he seems to be very attractive to some men. Right, Luca? 😉