Riccardo Muti to China
OperaThe former Chicago chief, relieved now of most worldly concderns, plans to take his Ravenna opera academy to the city of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, in November.
The Suzhou Symphony Orchestra will support the teaching he gives to young musicians from around the world. The opera he will teach is Cavalleria Rusticana.
In a launch video, Muti said: ‘China and Italy both have a profound culture and very long history. I know that there are many Chinese who love Italian opera and I have been trying to get close to Chinese culture. During the past decades, classical music has gained a large fan base in China, with new concert halls and new symphony orchestras appearing in the country. There are also many great Chinese musicians performing around the world — pianists, violinists, singers and conductors — who have become like bridges, bringing our countries closer to each other.’
Unfortunately Muti’s Mascagni, like his Respighi and (fortunately) rare Puccini is very heavy handed and quite vulgar. He should have decided to bring there some early Verdi or some Mozart instead, which he can conduct beautifully.
His Verdi and Mozart used to be good, now they are deflated and boring.
I have to agree. I used to admire him, now I can’t stand him.
Weird, you are from Chicago and you missed his Otello, Aida, Ballo in maschera with the CSO. Or the Requiem. I traveled from Southern California for all of them and was so in awe that when I managed to find another ticket I went twice. Otherwise, if you did not miss them, as often happens, you confused “feels to me” with “is”
Well if any thing requires heavy hands it’s Mascagni!
“China and Italy both have a … very long history” with Marco Polo taking Chinese noodles back to Italy which became pasta, without the Chinese, there would be no Italian cuisine.
Study your history a bit and you will realize that Chinese noodles and pasta have developed completely independently and WAY BEFORE Marco Polo made the trip
That was the point. Noodles were long established in China; Marco Polo learned about them there and brought the idea to Italy.
Or so the myth goes …
As if Italian cuisine is only pasta.
I guess you have never been to Italy (and I don’t mean italian restaurants).
Yup, you have no idea of the terrible suffering in the booth-shaped peninsula in those 15/20 centuries preceding MarcoPolo and Christopher Columbus. People were starving because they had no idea of what to cook. When the former brought back the noodles and opened his restaurant, still something was missing as his noodle soup wasn’t really to die for (or maybe too much so). It’s only when the latter brought back tomatoes from the new world and accidentally slipped on a bag of them smashing them into a pulp that the mixing of these two most outstanding of pillars of Italian culture in the eyes of so many foreigners gave rise to Rinascimento.
You can’t disagree with his words.
Are we absolutely sure that Muti meant to say he’s going to China, and not to Korea?
The Italian Stallion, with his ‘profound culture’, seemed to get easily confused. He mockingly referred to Korean Maestro Chung’s with the racially charged nickname “the Chinaman” (“Il Cinese”), according to reputable news agency Ansa and Il Giorno, an Italian newspaper (see article:
https://www.ilgiorno.it/spettacoli/teatro-scala-muti-1.6354410).
Muti is like Celibidache was – he only admires dead colleague conductors.
Not true, Celi did a lot to recognise and promote the talents of younger conductors in Munich and elsewhere.
Actually, Celi admired Tennstedt and had a grudging respect for Bernstein.
Before you propagate your Muti hate, keep in mind that Muti had already clarified his use of language to the Woke Press as well as his anti-PC stance. In Italian, ‘il cinese’ does not have the same pejorative racial connotation as its false friend ‘chinaman’ in English. He also uses “oriental” on asian people because he feels it connotes the beauty of orientalism in the 19th century sense, nothing to do with racism.
And as a non-Woke member of the said ethic group I’m perfectly OK with that.
So in other words you are saying it’s ok to nickname Maestro Chung “il cinese”.
Muti is Italian, not American, and does not subscribe to the Woke-ism disease originated in American academia.
Nothing wrong with giving people nicknames. For example, I know people in Milan who call Muti “Il Terrone”. I know others that call him “Il Terrone Ignorante”
I have been called the German or the Russian. So?
Poor good old Chicagorat, since Muti left his post as CSO music director he is down to just one forum profile and very sporadic comments.
Clearly even just the residual shadow of Muti still hovering around Symphony Hall terrorizes him to the point of not affording him the courage to finally reveal these incredible acts of debauchery he knows and has made his mission to denounce to the world.
Unfortunately, even the door of the FBI witness protection program is closed for him, as Muti, with his uncanny ability to deceive, lulled the authorithies into believing he’s less dangerous than a mere druglord.
Let’s all help Chicagorat in this difficult moment of his life, when rationality seems to be abandoning him, letting him believe that anyone could take seriously his outrage for the unforgivable sin of referring to a colleague as “il cinese”, committed by his nemesis, the guy he always refers to endearingly as “the Italian stallion”.
In recent years many Italian cities have seen new, excellent Chinese restaurants… in Milan (there’s even a Chinatown there), Modena, etc. Compared to decades ago when Chinese food in Italy was all but inedible.
Suzhou (its historic center, at least) is a very lovely old city.
Great. An opera which he understands nothing.
The L’s will become R’s or is it the other way around
My Chinese wife calls western music ‘the yellow man’s burden’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DqvweTYTI0