In Wednesday’s (9/25) Chicago Tribune, John von Rhein writes, “This is the week when Riccardo Muti and his Chicago Symphony Orchestra take on the first big project of their month-long homage to Giuseppe Verdi on the 200th anniversary of his birth. [They] will present the first of four concert performances of Verdi’s first Shakespearean opera, Macbeth, Saturday night at Symphony Center. Climaxing the bicentennial celebration will be a single performance of the monumental Verdi Requiem on Oct. 10, the exact date of Verdi’s 200th birthday. The sold-out concert will be simulcast in Millennium Park and streamed live to millions around the world via …websites.…The 72-year-old Neapolitan maestro took time last week to share his reflections about Verdi, whose music has been so integral a part of his repertory in a career spanning more than 40 years.… ‘Verdi expressed the most essential feelings of mankind—love, hate, friendship, jealousy… . His music is the mirror of who we are.…Verdi is very complicated, because he says many things, and deep things, with simple elements and in a short space of time,’ [Muti said]. ‘He tells us about our sins, our defects, all our qualities as human beings.’ ”
Posted September 26, 2013
