Paths of Friendship lead Muti to Athens

(ANSA) - Ravenna, July 8 - Famed Italian conductor Roberto Muti will direct Italian and Greek artists in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens on July 9 as part of the "Paths of Friendship" of the 30th edition of the Ravenna summer opera and classical music festival.
    The performance, made up of 200 elements including Muti's Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra and the Costanzo Porta Choir, will be repeated in Ravenna on July 11.
    Performers include Francesco Manara, first violin with Milan's La Scala Orchestra; and the voices of Maria Mudryak, Anastasia Boldyreva, Luciano Ganci and Evgeny Stavinsky.
    "Musical performance is the symbol of democratic coexistence, where the individual contributes to the common good," Muti said.
    "Democracy in its most perfect and harmonious form was born right in Greece," he said.
    Muti said when his musicians and singers travel, he encourages them to join with their foreign counterparts.
    "Musicians sitting at the same pedestal often have only music in common, and yet they manage to express the same idea, the same concept," Muti said.
    "The individual has to do his or her part by listening and respecting that of the others, working together for the best results," he said.
    The Ravenna Festival has been producing the Paths of Friendship concert since 1997 when it began in Sarajevo, in the immediate aftermath of the Bosnian War.
    Since that time, it has brought performances to places around the globe, including Jerusalem, Beirut, New York City's Ground Zero, Istanbul, Damascus, Nairobi, Tehran, and Kiev, among others.
    This year's Paths of Friendship concert is the 23rd edition of the event, in collaboration with the Athens - Epidaurus Festival with the support of the Italian culture and foreign ministries, the Region of Emilia-Romagna, the Italian Embassy, and the Institute of Italian Culture in Athens.
    Participating musicians come from the Athens State Orchestra, the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, the Ert National Symphony Orchestra, the Greek Youth Symphony Orchestra, the City of Athens Symphony Orchestra, the City of Athens Philharmonic, with singers from the Ert National Choir and the Choir of the Municipality of Athens.