The Roads of Friendship: Ravenna-New York

The Roads of Friendship left the Mediterranean basin to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The “Bridge of Brotherhood” reached New York, whose heart was devastated by the previous year’s 9/11 attacks. Its deep wounds can still be seen. The theme Ravenna Festival dedicated to the metropolis was intentionally concise: “New York, September 11”. And at the very edge of Ground Zero’s chasm, the target of the composed daily pilgrimage of people of all races and faiths, Riccardo Muti - after the crowded concert held in Avery Fisher Hall at the Lincoln Center, “home” of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra - led the Choir of La Scala and the Musicians of Europe United (in memory of the victims of the Twin Towers’ tragedy and of all the victims of violence in the world) in their performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Va’ pensiero. Many members of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra joined the Musicians of Europe United - the best talents selected from 19 orchestras from 11 European nations - in an unprecedented fellowship. On 22 July, in Manhattan’s absolute unnatural silence, the choir sang about the toppled towers and the sad lamentation, arousing intensely vibrant emotion. Through music Ravenna Festival turns “our gaze to those new, symbolically biblical ‘Towers of Babel’ - said Cristina Mazzavillani Muti – that buried everything and from which we can resurrect together, better than before, only with knowledge and love.” But the notes of Beethoven’s Eroica also resounded with the aching funeral march and with “Tutto cangia, il ciel s’abbella” from Gioachino Rossini’s Guglielmo Tell, which Maestro Muti considers as “a call to hope with the purity of light typical of C Major.”