The Roads of Friendship: Ravenna-Erevan-Istanbul

The course of the “Roads of Friendship” branched in 2001 by proposing a dual appointment and by building “a bridge of brotherhood for the Roads of Friendship through art and culture” with thousand-year old Istanbul and the Armenian city of Erevan. Ravenna thus joined ancient Byzantium and one of the western world’s most ancient historical and geographical frameworks. On 23 July, before an audience of over eight thousand people, the Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir of La Scala theatre conducted by Riccardo Muti dedicated a programme entirely centred on Verdi to celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the proclamation of Christianity in Armenia (301-2001). The Erevan Chamber Choir, the voice of a people based at the furthest regions of Christianity, joined them. The following evening, instead, the TRT Istanbul Youth Chorus joined the voices of La Scala. Ravenna Festival’s deep meaning can be appreciated in the words of the Katholicós Karekin II, supreme Patriarch of all Armenians: “The mission promoted by Ravenna Festival’s Roads of Friendship is dear and close to the spirit of the Armenian people, whose life has been anchored to the values of Christianity for the past 1700 years. They have always longed for peace… The sublime music conducted by Riccardo Muti has threaded its way up the gentle slopes of Mt. Ararat, which is sacred to all Armenians, right to the inaccessible peak where Noah’s redeeming ark finally came to rest.”