AboutBorn in Naples in 1941, winner of the Cantelli Prize in 1967, Riccardo Muti has been Musical Director of La Scala since 1986. From 1980 to 1992 he was Musical Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, which he has led on several tours. From 1968 to 1980 he was Principal Director and Musical Director of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Since 1972 he has conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, achieving such success as to be nominated Principal Director, successor to Otto Klemperer. In 1979 he was nominated their Principal Director, and in 1982 "Conductor Laureate". In 1987 Riccardo Muti was nominated Principal Director of the Scala Philharmonic Orchestra, with which in 1988 he received the Viotti d'Oro and with which he went on tour in Italy and in Europe. In 1996 Muti conducted the Vienna Musikverein Philharmonic at the closing of the Viennese Festival Week and in a triumphant tour in the Far East (Japan, Korea, Hong Kong) and in Germany. Since 1971 he has been a regular participant of the Salzburg Festival, conducting operas and concerts. His Mozart opera performances have become an important tradition of the Festival over the years. Apart from La Scala, Muti has conducted operatic productions in Philadelphia, Munich, Vienna and London, and at the Ravenna Festival. He is a regular guest of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Viennese Philharmonic (who have honoured him with the Golden Ring, reserved for the greatest orchestra directors of the world) with which in 1988 he completed a European tour and whom he conducted most recently at La Scala, in 1994. Still on the concert platform of the Viennese Philharmonic in January 1991, he conducted in Salzburg the Concerto with which he opened the Mozart celebrations, in 1992 the celebrated concert of 150 years of the orchestra, and on 1 January 1993 and 1997 the famous New Year's concert (which he will conduct also in the year 2000). In April 1994 Riccardo Muti, after a series of concerts in Vienna, directed the Viennese Philharmonic on tour in Germany and France and has conducted the Mass in B minor by Bach in Vienna and Dresden. In 1996 he conducted the Viennese Philharmonic in the celebratory concert for the millenium of Austria as well as Roberto De Simone's edition of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte at the Ravenna Festival. He has been to Japan (1988 and 1995) with the Teatro alla Scala as well as Germany, Russia and France where, in 1988, he conducted Verdi's Requiem Mass in the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. In 1989 the triumphant tour of La Scala in Russia was applauded by eminent personalities in the political and cultural realm, counting amongs others Michail Gorbachov and Andrej Sacharov. In July 1992 Riccardo Muti conducted Verdi's La Traviata and the Requiem Mass in a prestigious tour by the Teatro alla Scala in Seville, Madrid and Barcelona, marking the event of Expo '92. In October of the same year he conducted the Scala Orchestra and Chorus in two concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York. In 1994 he conducted the Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt. In 1995 he conducted a new production of La Traviata at the Salzburg Festival with the Viennese Philharmonic and in September of the same year La Traviata, Falstaff and the Requiem Mass by Verdi in a triumphant tour of La Scala in Tokyo. In 1995 he inaugurated the Scala opera season with Mozart's Magic Flute and, ten years after his debut as Musical Director, he has again proposed Nabucco by Verdi. In his role as Director of Music at the Teatro alla Scala, Riccardo Muti has conducted the more popular scores of the young Verdi, such as Nabucco and Attila, as well as the first two operas of the romantic trilogy - La Traviata and Rigoletto. He has presented the Da Ponte trilogy by Mozart and given an impulsive exploration of the neo-classical repertoire rarely performed, such as Lodoiska by Luigi Cherubini and La Vestale by Gaspare Spontini. Having already conducted Der Fliegende Holländer and Parsifal, the Wagnerian engagement by Riccardo Muti was devoted to the Ring cycle, opening with Die Walküre (December 1994) and continuing with Das Rheingold (May 1996). During the 1994-95 season Muti conducted Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele for the first time. On 18 May 1996 he conducted the extraordinary concert for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the reconstruced hall of the Teatro alla Scala, and on 7 December he inaugurated the season of the Scala with Armide by Gluck. In April 1997 he conducted Wagner's Siegfreid at La Scala, and in May Le Nozze di Figaro. Still in the course of 1997 during the celebrations for the Schubert bicentenary, heading the Viennese Philharmonic he conducted an important series of concerts, including the prestigious performance at the Dome of Santo Stefano in Vienna where he conducted the Mass in E flat major D 950. During his career Riccardo Muti has obtained numerous awards and academic honours: from the University of Philadelphia and from Mount Holyhoke College in Massachussets, from the Warwick University in England, from Westminster College Choir in Princeton and from the Italian University of Bologna, Urbino and Cremona. Riccardo Muti is an honorable member of the Royal Academy of Music, the Academy of Santa Cecilia, and the Luigi Cherubini Academy in Florence. He is Grande'Ufficiale (Great Official) and Cavaliere of Gran Croce of the Italian Republic. He has been honoured with Order of the Cross from the Federal Republic of Germany, with the Cross of Honour from the Republic of Austria and with the Commendatore Cross of the Cavalieri in Malta. In December 1992 he was awarded the Legion of Honour by the French Republic. He is citizen of Philadelphia, Florence, Ravenna, Molfetta, Tredozio, Maiolati Spontini, Busseto and Milano.
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Riccardo Muti
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Riccardo Muti Newsletter |
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Riccardo Muti Discography (7titles)
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