Feb 20, 2026
3 min read
Riccardo Muti is in top form, it was heard at the press conference announcing the new production of Verdi's Macbeth, which will be staged in the following days (starting on February 24, with previews for young people on February 20) at the Turin Royal Opera House, at the head of the program that continues at full steam, with his director and his daughter Chiara Muti at the helm, supported by the wind of high managerial qualifications.
Starring Luca Micheletti (Macbeth), Lydia Friedman (Lady Macbeth), Maharam Hussenov (Banco) and Giovanni Sala (Macduff).
The master, presented by director Mathieu Jouvin and artistic director Cristiano Sandri, is clearly delighted that he can come to Turin (thanks to excellent support such as Reale Mutua) to create a play, which is rare since it is known that Riccardo Muti now devotes most of his time to climbing and Berlin.While in Chicago, he concentrated his efforts while in Italy on the Orchestra Giovanni Le Luigi Cherubini, an orchestra he had created himself and a path he had been happy to follow for many years) and when he performed, he performed in concert.He also made an exception for the Theater Royal, which obviously always has the flavor of the event.
In Turin, Muti made no secret of his joy, recognizing the high quality of Turin's artistic community and the extreme friendliness of its staff, which he defined as "very Piedmontese".Confirming that every return to Turin is an event of public interest (all shows have long been sold out), as evidenced by the very crowded press conference held on February 19th in the foyer of the Arena Regio, Muti was the first to be surprised by such a large number of followers and then said sarcastically to those present: "But how many of you are so beautiful because they are outside and they are so beautiful! Approximately!".
Despite the jokes, the audience listens to everything he says and praises him, appreciating his intelligence as he quickly conveys important truths with the simplicity that he distinguishes.The Maestro returns to a favorite theme associated with the great Italian opera tradition.In addition, they are poor, distracted and careless in underlining the most important aspects of our works so that they can be preserved and focused on performance. Muti explained that he has fought all his life: "For Italian opera to be considered a high-quality art form, not just entertainment. When you listen to Wagner and go to Bayreuth or listen to Mozart, people have a traditional approach to them.But when you go to listen to Verdi, you often think about the length, you don't respect him, he doesn't say anything, he doesn't say anything.We appreciate the attention to detail that sometimes seems unattainable about people in music, because the composer himself sought and showed that behind the same toast, and this approach should be clear to the public, in fact, dedicating existence to the study and performance of Verdi and Mozart.I found a meeting point between the musicians when they hold the recitative.
There were some typical Regieheater jabs during the press conference, although Riccardo Muti recalled his past experiences with directors who made 20th-century theater history, from Giorgio Strehler to Graham Vick.The discussion about the direction of the slides concerns the trust in the work of his daughter Chiara Muti, who, according to the maestro, is not only his daughter: "No nepotism, for God's sake, Chiara is a well-prepared and talented woman of the theater, she is cultured, she studied with great directors and she showed me that she is deeply immersed in Macbeth.
Confirmation comes from listening to the words of Chiara Muti, who underlines how in several letters Verdi considered it necessary to serve the poet first and then the composer, and to give great importance to Shakespeare. From here he began his work, which gives direct references to the "Shakespearean tragedy, from which - supporting the director - I started Verdi, we know, I loved Shakespeare. He was very moved when critics accused him of not understanding anything about his theater after the premiere of 'Macbeth' in Paris. There is a letter in which he does not knowabout him, except that he does not know, and he does not know everything about him, and one cannot.Shakespeare, which he had the opportunity to read and study from his early years, can be seen from these Shadows that Verdi finds in all his creations: with the shadows and colors he understands a world, as at the beginning of 'Mabet', with the croaking that reminds us of the world of witches, which are our unconscious for us Murmurs that each of us hears when we have to follow a path ordecide a choice, he can, therefore, be wrong of life or of Fragility, chooses the evil Shakespeare, generator of death and the things of witches themselves."
Referring to Shakespeare, Chiara Muti specifies that for her interpretation of Verdi's Macbeth in Turin, "she introduced the idea that visually we are inside a space that is like an eye, which is then a wall that borders the real world from the imaginary. Macbeth, by his choice, is destined to defeat. The teacher who becomes a tragedy, who becomes a man, becomes a tragedy, a man becomes a tragedy".a spiral from which he can no longer escape.It all starts with a meditation on murder, and after committing the murder, it becomes obsessive, all-encompassing.Progressively emptying his consciousness, he slips into madness: he carries the guilt to the end, drags the man behind him and finally becomes a pure gaze, a blind and insane gaze, paradoxically, it becomes evident and finally opens in the moment of the final revelation, when he discovers that Macduff is "not born of the truth" of the Greek world.
The press conference ended with the words of the supervisor of Reggio, Mathieu Jovin, who again thanked Motti for his presence and for the work carried out with full attention to the pursuit of quality;A demanding job, it was said, "but one that made us all better, because quality is born from demand."
