Repertoire

Since 1997, the year of the first historic concert in Sarajevo, the path of the Ravenna Festival has been closely intertwined with “The Roads of Friendship”, a series of lay pilgrimages touching on cities wounded by war, re-establishing ancient ties to places that have made history and building ‘bridges of brotherhood’: these concerts represent the Festival’s most intimate spirit, the climax of its cultural project, its utmost synthesis. Leading on these paths as a cultural ambassador to the world is Riccardo Muti, with the Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala, the Orchestra and Chorus of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Musicians of Europe United—an ensemble of leading players from Europe’s major orchestras—and, most recently, the Cherubini Youth Orchestra. In line with the spirit of brotherhood that animates these concerts, and in the name of the universality of music, these orchestras and choirs have regularly welcomed some local musicians and given life to unforgettable events in such symbolic sites of ancient and contemporary history as Beirut, Jerusalem, Moscow, Yerevan, Istanbul, New York, Cairo, Damascus, Nairobi, Mirandola, Redipuglia, Otranto, Tokyo. In July 2017, the Festival reached the ancient Persia: Riccardo Muti led the Teheran Symphony Orchestra and the Cherubini Youth Orchestra in the Iranian capital city and then in Ravenna, an historic double concert for which Orient and Occident met under the sign of Verdi’s music.

The answer to one more “call” enriches the geography of the Paths of Friendship project: it comes from the depth of the ancient Slavic universe, from the strip of fertile land lying at the eastern borders of Europe, battered by history but always ready to find new life in its thousand-year-old culture and traditions. Under the baton of Riccardo Muti, the Italian musicians join the Ukrainian National Opera Orchestra as well as the young artists from Mariupol. And thus, Abraham Lincoln’s yearning for justice and equality among peoples, set to music by Copland, meets Verdi’s secular spirituality in a “liturgy” of togetherness through music, which is the key to true freedom.

1997 SARAJEVO Skenderija Centre
1998 BEIRUT Forum de Beyrouth
1999 JERUSALEM Sultan’s Pool
2000 MOSCOW Bolshoi Theatre
2001 YEREVAN – ISTANBUL Convention & Exhibition Centre
2002 NEW YORK Ground Zero – Avery Fisher Hall (Lincoln Center)
2003 IL CAIRO Giza plateau
2004 DAMASCUS Roman Theatre in Bosra
2005 EL DJEM Roman Theatre in El Djem
2006 MEKNÈS Lahdim square
2007 CONCERT FOR LEBANON Rome, Quirinal Palace
2008 MAZARA DEL VALLO Arena of the Mediterranean Sea
2009 SARAJEVO Olympic Hall Zetra
2010 ITALY-SLOVENIA-CROATIA Unità d’Italia square, Trieste
2011 NAIROBI Uhuru Park
2012 CONCERT OF THE BROTHERHOODS Pala De Andrè, Ravenna
2013 CONCERT FOR THE EARTHQUAKE-STRICKEN AREAS IN EMILIA REGION, Mirandola
2014 REDIPUGLIA Military Memorial, Fogliano di Redipuglia
2015 OTRANTO Otranto Cathedral
2016 TOKYO Bunka Kaikan e Metropolitan Theatre
2017 TEHRAN Vahdat Hall

2018 KYIV Sofiyska Square