The Roads of Friendship: Ravenna-Teheran

Two millenary civilisations which bloomed thousand miles away from each other, and two cities - the one a small jewel covered in mosaics, the other a metropolis of nine million inhabitants, embraced by mountains from every side: a single orchestra and a single choir united them under Riccardo Muti’s baton, in the universal language - and in the sentimental universe - of Giuseppe Verdi. At the very heart of the Iranian capital and in Ravenna, historically a door looking East, over 200 Italian and Iranian artists performed together on the same stage. And - as it always happens on the Roads of Friendship - they did so under the sign of that infallible shared language: music. An “ideal” Italian orchestra (an ensemble of musicians from the major orchestras across the country, from the Teatro Alla Scala in Milan to the San Carlo in Naples, from the Teatro dell’Opera in Roma to the Teatro Massimo in Palermo) and the Cherubini Orchestra opened their doors to the musicians of the Tehran Symphony Orchestra. This way the voices of the two countries came together in one voice, because each of us needs the other and the only possible future lies in dialogue. “This is one of the most important journeys of Friendship we have ever undertaken - Muti said - We have put the ifs and buts aside, and we have left for Iran. I had no doubt at all about coming here to make music with the Iranian and Italian musicians, united in the name of Giuseppe Verdi, a composer who speaks to the man about the man, and to peoples of any latitude and culture. Music goes beyond words, which can be misunderstood; music always tells the truth of the heart, the one which has neither religion nor politics.”