"I don't change the lyrics of opera librettos. We must not hypocritically whitewash the tombs, it is not by changing history that we help young people."
Riccardo Muti explains his idea on cancel culture at the Teatro Regio in Turin, during the presentation of Un Ballo in Maschera, Giuseppe Verdi's masterpiece, on stage for six performances from Wednesday 21 February to Sunday 3 March.
The new staging is signed by Andrea De Rosa, director of the Tpe Teatro Astra in Turin.
The protagonists of Verdi's masterpiece are Piero Pretti as Riccardo, Luca Micheletti in the role of Renato and Lidia Fridman, Amelia.
"Director De Rosa and I decided not to change even a word, we were faithful to the text of Un Ballo in Maschera. We must correct the past, but no one can erase it even if it is cruel or dirty. We should erase most of the librettos. No one can go to a museum and retouch a work of art they don't agree with", observes Muti who had already made similar choices in the past.
For the great conductor "we must avoid slogans and seek dialogue. We see abuses and horrors every day. We seek harmony, beauty in a world that is falling. We must also bring on stage the mistakes of the past because the young people can correct them, avoid them and find the right direction".
For Muti, the return to the Regio di Torino is a return, the third, after Cosi fan tutte by Mozart, presented in streaming in March 2021, and Don Giovanni by Mozart, in November 2022. At his side are the director De Rosa, the superintendent Mathieu Jouvin, the mayor Stefano Lo Russo, the artistic director Cristiano Sandri, and the president of Reale Mutua, Luigi Lana.
"I'm here because I have an excellent relationship with this theatre, with the superintendent and the mayor. It's a theater where it's pleasant to work" explains Muti who remembers directing A Masked Ball for the first time in '70 with Richard Trucker, a of Paganini's favorite tenors.
"That world ended, but in this theater I found it again. It happened, the first time, the second, the third."
There is no shortage of anecdotes and a bit of autobiography.
"I wasn't able to get a degree because you can't do too many things at once. My father always told me to get a piece of paper. Unfortunately he died and he couldn't see that I got 23 honorary degrees. With the twenty-third I had some doubts, I thought maybe they didn't have anyone else to give it to", joked the conductor.
There is pride in having been chosen to perform Beethoven's Ninth on 7 May in Vienna for the bicentenary: "For me it is a source of pride also because I will not be available for the 300th anniversary, but it is a recognition to Italy, to the Italian school".
There is great anticipation for the premiere of A Masquerade Ball.
In two hours, between 1.30pm and 3.30pm today, all the tickets for the Youth Preview, reserved for under 30s, scheduled for Monday 19 February at 8pm, were sold.
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