Rome Opera goes global

Italian maestro Riccardo Muti opened the Rome Opera season on Sunday with Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth as an opera house little known on the international music circuit makes an ambitious bid for prestige.

The award-winning Mro Muti, who famously quit La Scala in Milan in a dramatic showdown in 2005, was named last month as “honorary director for life” in Rome.

“When Maestro Muti attaches his name to the theatre, it’s a guarantee of excellence”, Rome Opera director Catello De Martino said.

“For its part, the theatre has taken on the moral engagement of being up to the challenge and of becoming an international point of reference.”

The 70-year-old Mr Muti, a Neapolitan native with a trademark mane of dark hair, will retain his post as conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

“Rome is a marvellous city!” Mro Muti exclaimed to a group of visiting schoolchildren during a final rehearsal ahead of Sunday’s performance. It featured Russian soprano Tatyana Serzhan and Uruguayan baritone Dario Solari.

“Music is good for you, it opens the soul,” the conductor said.

The maestro also accused Italian politicians “past and present” of not paying enough attention to culture.

Mr Muti has campaigned for months against budget cuts by Italy’s last government under Silvio Berlusconi.

In an unprecedented move at the Rome Opera on March 12, the maestro asked the orchestra to repeat Verdi’s famous aria Va Pensiero from the opera Nabucco – a stirring patriotic ode – to protest the cuts.

The audience rose in a standing ovation and sang along to the aria.

Artistic director Alessio Vlad said 2011/2012 would be a “strong symphonic season”, with eight operas and five ballets including Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker produced by Nir Kabaretti and Verdi’s Attila in May with Mr Muti.

“The season will be all about strengthening ties between the public and the city of Rome,” said Mr Vlad, adding that the opera house was also hoping to encourage some of the many tourists who visit Rome each year to attend.

The opera house, housed in a 19th century building near Rome’s main railway station that was entirely re-modelled under fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, has vastly expanded its international reach in the past couple of years.