Muti seminar draws interest from around the world

The doors closed yesterday on applications for Mro Riccardo Muti's unprecedented week-long Seminar on Italian Opera, which starts on August 29 after being "bombarded" by requests from Malta and overseas.

Until yesterday, the telephone had not stopped ringing, said Mario Frendo, artistic director of the Mediterranean Music Academy project, which should be operational by October 2008.

Not every request materialised or was accepted however - the seminar being limited to no more than 100 participants by Mro Muti, the Academy's honorary president. He vetted each and every application and wanted to know exactly who he would be addressing.

He decided he only wanted 10 full-time participants, which the organisers managed to stretch to 15. The rest were full-time and one-day observers, and several foreign journalists, who want to cover the event and would be attending for only two days so that as many as possible could be reached.

CVs and requests were subjected to a selection process as Mro Muti did not want the structured seminar at the Mediterranean Conference Centre to be some sort of a show - a mere opportunity for anyone to watch "one of the world's greatest conductors in the history of music" at work, said Mr Frendo.

It was a didactic exercise and he was going to be working - something he took very seriously, he said.

The participants would have the chance to learn the ins and outs of producing an opera performance from the master, including working with singers and the choir, and to follow rehearsals of the two concerts he is conducting with his Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra in the week between August 29 and September 5.

Mr Frendo said the requests flowed in - notwithstanding that it was late in the day - the moment the seminar was launched at a press conference in Rome and articles were published around Europe.

A brochure of the seminar was also sent to various academies, conservatories and universities, and even though some students were on holiday at the time, one institution opted to inform them by e-mail, given the magnitude of the event, Mr Frendo said.

The participants are from as far a field as South Korea, Syria, the UK, France and Italy, while the whole National Orchestra is attending, local participation being equally important, according to Mr Frendo.

Meanwhile, Syria's national orchestra had also shown "huge interest", but there was only enough room for a seven-strong contingent, including their conductor. And a whole class from the prestigious Accademia Teatro alla Scala had also requested to attend, but could not due to time constraints, Mr Frendo said.

Having been involved in the project since its inception last November, when talks were held between Mro Muti, his wife Cristina and Tourism and Culture Minister Francis Zammit Dimech, Mr Frendo said working with Mro Muti was teaching him how "people get results!"

"As a musician, I am aware that you have to work hard, but when you see this guy working, you realise what working hard really means, especially when you see his schedule. His rehearsals start at 10 a.m. and stop at 9 p.m., with a mere two-hour break for lunch. At 66, the man really has stamina and energy, which is, in turn, projected through his music and his musicians - and to those following his seminar. He is known to work with frightening discipline and no time to waste."

Various musicians have said that Mro Muti has such control over the orchestra that he manages to get exactly what he wants out of it, said Mr Frendo, expressing his fortune and that of Malta to be hosting him at a point when he has decided to share his knowledge with youths.

During the coming year, the basic infrastructure and resources of the academy would be set up to start holding master classes by October 2008, he said about the next step.

"We are learning as we go along and are open to whatever we can do to improve as Malta never had an academy of the sort. It is not Paris, or Rome, so we have to take into account the context we are operating in. The fact that English is spoken in Malta is considered to be an asset for such an international venture," Mr Frendo said.

The seminar is part of the series of events to launch the Academy. They include the concerts at the MCC on September 2, and at St John's Co-Cathedral on September 5, which is strictly by invitation and limited to about 700 guests.

Tickets for the MCC concert, Donizetti's Don Pasquale, including the Coro del Teatro Municipale di Piacenza and five soloists, can be purchased from its booking office and cost Lm40 while the dress circle costs Lm60 and includes an automatic complimentary ticket for the St John's concert for 400 persons.

A string orchestra, and soprano and mezzo of international repute Barbara Frittoli and Monica Bacelli, are performing sacred music, as is allowed in Maltese churches - Pergolesi's Stabat Mater and Porpora's Salve Regina.