Riccardo Muti. The Scala Years
Riccardo Muti. The Scala Years
6th June 2016 – 15th October 2016
The exhibition, curated by Lorenzo Arruga, is an audiovisual journey through Muti’s residence at La Scala. The theatre’s library has been lined with black tulle, to serve as a canvas on which the maestro’s unique experience will be subdivided into sections. Each room is dedicated to a composer or an aspect of Muti’s work, with plenty of photos, videos and recordings.
The first room is entirely dedicated to Mozart, with video testimonies of historical opera productions conducted by Muti, from the popular Da Ponte trilogy (Le Nozze Di Figaro, Così Fan Tutte and Don Giovanni) to The Magic Flute. Mozart has long been one of the maestro’s favourite composers. Verdi was equally relevant in Muti’s career and in particular during his time at La Scala. Videos and memorabilia from the maestro’s most celebrated productions of the Italian composer make up the theme for the second room of the exhibition.
The third room focuses on Wagner‘s works and the fourth on the classical belcanto repertoire and the musical masterpieces of composers such as Paisiello, Spontini and Gluck. The visitors is following this thematic path, ending in photographs from Muti’s production of Salieri’s L’Europa Riconosciuta, the unusual choice with which Muti chose to celebrate La Scala’s return to its first home in the square by the same name, after being moved to the newly constructed Teatro degli Arcimboldi in the late 90s, as the original theatre was undergoing restoration.