Muti, the coryphaeus uniting voices and friendships

It is up to an event in grand style to make the moral and artistic message of this XXXVI edition of the Ravenna Festival explicit, indeed unequivocal. In fact, an intense beam of light shines on the entire programme of the two-day opening event entitled Cantare amantis est, a journey into choral music entrusted to the confident guidance of Riccardo Muti. On 1 and 2 June, choral groups from the entire peninsula are summoned to the Pala de André in Ravenna, which the Maestro will conduct in a series of rehearsal sessions open to the public. The project, curated by Anna Leonardi and Michele Marco Rossi, greets the arrival in Ravenna of the "Journey of Friendship", the continuation of the precious itinerant experience of the "Ways of Friendship" that Muti has stubbornly taken, for over a quarter of a century (since 1997), from Sarajevo to New York, from Jerusalem to Kiev, as a constant and vibrant call of musical resonance to a universal brotherhood whose need unfortunately shows no signs of waning. An initiative that takes on the value of 'a call, an appeal addressed to all and everyone'.

Always a bridge-builder between different cultures, 'in this dramatic moment, when the world is a burning powder keg', Muti is convinced that 'singing and making music together is the most vivid example of a society that through harmony and beauty tends towards the common good'; in fact, precisely 'singing is an expression of our soul and of the differences that dwell within each of us'. The very title of the event comes from afar. It has spanned over 1600 years of Western culture the insight of Saint Augustine that 'singing is proper to those who love', a spontaneous and natural manifestation of love. An observation that, parallel to that for which he who sings prays twice (bis orat qui cantat), testifies to the depth of Augustine of Hippo's research into musical experience, identified as a privileged path to interiority.

A popular project centred on the chorus could not - not only because the direction is entrusted to a Verdian doc - but also refer to Giuseppe Verdi, the opera composer who perhaps more than any other dedicated constant care and formidable invention to the choral ensemble. How many masterpieces by Mozart or Rossini can count choruses as memorable as Verdi's? Three of these, not by chance among the most resonant with universal political implications, will be the material on which the voices of the many amateur and professional choirs will be tuned, voices of experts and beginners, of any age and texture (more than 2000 have already signed up), who will converge in Ravenna to sing together the "Va' pensiero" from Nabucco, "Patria oppressa!" from Macbeth and "Jerusalem! Jerusalem!" from the Lombardi alla prima crociata.

The two-day Cantare amantis est does not, however, exhaust the presence of the choral ensemble, which is the protagonist in several other events to be noted in the agenda. The Festival celebrates the 500th anniversary of the birth of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina in the breathtaking venues that are the basilicas of Ravenna, including the Byzantine Unesco World Heritage sites. After performing at Sant'Apollinare in Classe as part of the liturgy in a special project for this jubilee year, the Tallis Scholars conducted by Peter Phillips intertwine the voices of Palestrina and Arvo Pärt (the Estonian maestro will be ninety in September) at San Vitale, where the Odhecaton Vocal Ensemble led by Paolo Da Col will instead propose the princeps musicae and the more modern (but still observed) counterpoint of Alessandro Scarlatti, after having accompanied with the Missa Papae Marcelli the liturgy of Sant'Apollinare in Classe, the city's oldest jubilee basilica; if the contribution of the Vocal Group Heinrich Schütz conducted by Roberto Bonato is also taken into account, all the main feasts (Ascension, Pentecost and Trinity) of the liturgical period will be covered.

The choir also contributes to two sacred tales, both biblical but far apart in genesis. The oratorial masterpiece by Dietrich Buxtehude Membra Jesu Nostri (1680) will resound in the Basilica of Sant'Agata Maggiore entrusted to the Choir & Ensemble 1685 of the Conservatorio 'Giuseppe Verdi' of Ravenna conducted by Antonio Greco, with visual project by teachers and students of the Academy of Fine Arts of Ravenna. Instead, an absolute novelty, commissioned by the Festival, is the sacred performance Rut scheduled in the Basilica of San Giovanni Evangelista, music by Marianna Acito on a libretto by Francesca Masi: soloists Laura Zecchini, Daniela Pini and Angelo Testori, the La Corelli ensemble and the Vocal Group Heinrich Schütz will be conducted by Mattia Dattolo. An echo of this oratorio chorus will continue until November, when Ottavio Dantone will perform Handel's Messiah at the head of the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini and the Choir of Siena Cathedral 'Guido Chigi Saracini' prepared by Lorenzo Donati.