An Italian archaeological site to evoke the splendor of the ancient city of Palmyra, the Syrian "pearl of the desert", before it was destroyed by the Islamic State. At Paestum, the notes of the funeral march from Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 are sadly mounted between the imposing columns of the Greek temple of Neptune draped in red light, as if echoing the tragic times of the coronavirus and the massacres.
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About a hundred kilometers south of Naples, this open-air concert is the first organized since the start of the coronavirus epidemic in Italy, which has been confined for several months and has to date nearly 35,000 dead. It was dedicated to two "Syrian heroes" who lost their lives while trying to defend the cultural site of Palmyra in a country devastated by war.
"There is nothing more heroic than dying to defend culture, the culture of humanity"
Riccardo MutiA symphonic tribute to the archaeologist Khaled al-Assaad (1932-2015), the former head of Antiquities of Palmyra executed by jihadists, nicknamed "the guardian of Palmyra", and Hevrin Khalaf (1984-2019), Kurdish politician, activist for women's rights, summarily executed in October 2019 with his driver by pro-Turkish rebels.
Create a bridge between cultures
In front of a thousand spectators, wearing masks and at a good distance from each other, the master conducted the Luigi-Cherubini Young Italian Orchestra and a group of Syrian musicians who had taken refuge in Europe.
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"We can build bridges with music," said Kurdish artist Aynur Dogan, whose song of pain opened the concert. As night fell on the oldest temples of ancient Magna Graecia, the director of the Paestum archaeological park, the German Gabriel Zuchtriegel, was pleased to have contributed to "achieving brotherhood between two heritage sites of the humanity ” , from one shore to the other of the Mediterranean.