Matthew Vella
Riccardo Muti will reportedly become the principal director at Rome’s opera house in December 2010, as doubts still linger on whether the musical academy he endorsed for Malta is still on the cards.
The mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, released a statement in mid-August saying Muti will become the director of Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera at the end of next year, where he will conduct at least two opera productions and two concerts a year.
The exact details of his position as director are still vague although in April this year Alemanno asked Muti to take over from Nicola Sani as artistic director.
Last week the Ministry for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport claimed it was still working on the establishment of a Musical Academy, after the project was reported to have been abandoned.
Whether Muti will still be connected to this project is another matter altogether. The ministry says it has remained in contact with Riccardo Muti in Ravenna, and communicated with him twice for a meeting to be held over the project.
But the ministry said it would also work on “exploring new routes” to establish the academy.
Plans for the academy reportedly faltered over lack of funds, even though the project was meant to be up and running by October 2008. Villa Bighi was identified as a location as far back as 2007 and the project was launched in Rome with workshops led by Muti at the Mediterranean Conference Centre about a month after.
According to Mario Frendo, the artistic director entrusted with the project, he did not “know whether all is lost.”
The ministry said the project had been taken up by the former Tourism and Culture Ministry, under Francis Zammit Dimech, which had unsuccessfully applied for EU funds.
It was proposed that the academy would be situated in Villa Bighi, Kalkara, but this required extensive refurbishment estimated at over €5 million. Without EU funds, such refurbishment could not take place.
However, AP has reported that Muti will be occupied with his new sojourn in Rome, with the two operas already fixed being Mozart’s Idomena and Verdi’s Nabucco.
Alemanno, Rome’s mayor, reportedly met with the maestro in Austria to discuss the arrangement, details of which have yet to be finalised.
Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera is at present in considerable difficulties and has been under compulsory administration since April 2009 due to a €5 million deficit in its 2008 budget. However in mid-July Alemanno, who is acting as the temporary budget commissioner, said that he had found the necessary funding to cover the debt.
Muti is at present engaged by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as its music director for five years, starting in the 2010-2011 season. He has been contracted to conduct at least ten subscription concerts a year, as well as domestic and international tours.
Previously the principal conductor of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra and music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Muti declined offers to lead the New York Philharmonic in 2000. In April 2005, after a nineteen-year tenure, he resigned as music director of the Teatro alla Scala following a row with La Scala employees over the dismissal of then general manager, Carlo Fontana, and the subsequent appointment of Mauro Meli as his successor.
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