Maestro Riccardo Muti refuses to remove the word negri from an opera by Verdi: “He was not racist”
“I wanted to leave it because changing the text does not change history, while knowing it in its cruelty is important for the new generations”. Master Riccardo Muti says so, who at the helm of ‘his of him’ Chicago Symphony Orchestra he directed ‘A masked ball’ from Giuseppe Verdi in the form of a concert in the Illinois metropolis last Thursday, leaving unchanged the famous phrase of the libretto in which a judge defines the fortune teller Ulrica “of the unclean blood of blacks“, which instead in several theaters has been changed in the name of politically correct.
“I did it – explains the 80-year-old Neapolitan conductor – because Verdi is not a racist and that inhuman sentence, in the mouth of the judge, is to denigrate him, not the ‘black’ sorceress he is addressed to, who is defended by others in the same scene Verdi was a person of great morality, as well as a great musician, he wanted to attack the blind legality, not blacks.
When I explained it, I asked the tenor Long Eric Hallam if he felt disturbed to sing the phrase. He, South Africanblack, said to me: ‘Maestro, no problem’. “In the cast the tenor Francesco Meli, the baritone Luca Salsi, the soprano Damiana Mizzi, Joyce El-Khoury, Yulia Matochkina, Alfred Walker, Kevin Short, Ricardo José Rivera, Lunga Eric Hallam, Martin Luther Clark. An event also because the ‘Ballo’ is the last work that Muti performs as musical director, since his tenure at the Chicago Symphony will end in June 2023 with the solemn Mass of Beethoveneven if we are already talking about commitments.
Muti points the finger at the ‘cancel culture‘ and the politically correct: “We mainly import negative things from America. It’s like walking on eggs – he says in an interview with Corriere della Sera – you have to be careful not to say this and that, any reference, even vague, can make you suspicious, offend, or be used against I am very opposed to theaters that do make up and change the words of the librettos. You cannot change history, it must be kept in its essence, for better or for worse, so that the next generations may know. We do not help young people in that way, indeed … “.
As for greensa composer particularly loved by him, Muti recalls the story in which “his house in Sant’Agata” is the protagonist in these days, where “everything is as he left it, and it is put up for auction. A shame that the government does not intervene. It should be a museum. It belongs to the most executed author in the world “, he says a Republic the Neapolitan conductor, who recently celebrated 52 years of marriage with his wife Cristina: “A beautiful thing, yes, starting with the children who always saw their father behind a piano to study. But this allowed me to to be free. I have never been with the Communists, with the Christian Democrats, with the Freemasons as they accused me. Never had memberships. Orchestras have made my career “, he concludes.
#Muti #refuses #remove #negroes #opera #Verdi #racist