Riccardo Muti | WatchedThis
Riccardo Muti
Acting
Biography
Riccardo Muti (born 28 July 1941) is an Italian conductor. He is current music director of the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini. Muti has previously held posts at the Maggio Musicale in Florence, the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Salzburg Whitsun Festival, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He was named Music Director Emeritus in Chicago in 2023. A prolific recording artist, Muti has received numerous honours and awards, including two Grammy Awards. He is especially associated with the music of Giuseppe Verdi. Among the world's leading conductors, in a 2015 Bachtrack poll he was ranked by music critics as the world's fifth best living conductor. Muti was born in Naples but he spent his early childhood in Molfetta, near Bari, in the long region of Apulia on Italy's southern Adriatic coast. His father, Domenico, was a pathologist in Molfetta, as well as an amateur singer and great music lover; his mother, Gilda, was a reserved and severe Neapolitan woman with five children. Muti graduated from Liceo classico (Classical Lyceum) Vittorio Emanuele II in Naples, then studied piano at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella under Vincenzo Vitale; here Muti was awarded a diploma cum laude. He was subsequently awarded a diploma in Composition and Conducting by the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory, Milan, where he studied with the composer Bruno Bettinelli and the conductor Antonino Votto. He has also studied composition with Nino Rota, whom he considers a mentor. He was unanimously awarded first place by the jury of the "Guido Cantelli Competition for Conductors" in Milan in 1967 and became, the next year, principal conductor and music director of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, a post he held for eleven years. Since 1971 he has been a frequent conductor of operas and concerts at the Salzburg Festival, where he is particularly known for his Mozart opera performances. From 1972 Muti regularly conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra in London and in 1973 he was appointed its principal conductor, succeeding Otto Klemperer. In 1979, Muti became the music director and principal conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. In 1986, he became principal conductor of the Filarmonica della Scala, Milan, with which in 1988 he received the Viotti d'Oro and toured Europe. In 1989 he conducted a live performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni that was recorded on a DVD. In 1991, after twelve years as music director, he announced his resignation from the Philadelphia Orchestra, effective at the end of the 1991–1992 season. In 1995 he was the president of the jury of the International Composing Competition "2 Agosto". Muti has been a regular guest of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic. In 1996, he conducted the Vienna Philharmonic during Vienna Festival Week and on tour to Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Germany; he most recently toured with the Vienna Philharmonic to Japan in 2008. Muti has also led the orchestra's Vienna New Year's Concert on seven occasions to date: in 1993, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2018, 2021 and 2025. ... Source: Article "Riccardo Muti" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
Filmography Movies
Acting
A Magic Friend: The Maestro Nino Rota
The artistic evolution of the great composer, whose work left an indelible mark in the history of Italian cinema. In this documentary Nino Rota's extraordinary musical production relives in the words of his friends and colleagues. His collaboration with Visconti and Fellini are truly memorable. His movie score and sequences of his performances in theaters all over the world hand us down a full and evocative outline of this outstanding artist.
Neujahrskonzert 2004
The Vienna Philharmonic's 2004 New Year's Concert was conducted by Riccardo Muti and featured a traditional program of music by the Strauss family and their contemporaries, performing well-known pieces like the "An der schönen blauen Donau" waltz and the "Radetzkymarsch". The event took place at the Musikverein in Vienna, the orchestra's home, and was broadcast to a massive global audience. It is part of a long-standing tradition of the Vienna Philharmonic to present this concert, which is considered a significant event in the classical music calendar.
Nino Rota: Between Cinema and Concert
A look at the life and work of composer Nino Rota.
Europa Riconosciuta
Diana Damrau performs the title role of Salieri's opera staged in the Teatro alla Scala in 2004. Riccardo Muti conducts the Teatro alla Scala Orchestra and Chorus with the cast also including Desirée Rancatore as Semele and Genia Kühmeier as Asterio.
Don Pasquale
Determined to wed, a foolhardy old man is tricked by his friends into a sham wedding with an impish widow who turns into a harpy -- which subsequently cures his desire to marry in composer Gaetano Donizetti's famous opera buffa. Baritone Alessandro Corbelli plays the title character in this lush 2002 production also starring soprano Eva Mei and tenor Antonino Siragusa, with maestro Gérard Korsten leading the Chorus and Orchestra of Teatro Lirico.
The Magic Flute
The Queen of the Night enlists a handsome prince named Tamino to rescue her beautiful kidnapped daughter, Princess Pamina. Aided by the lovelorn bird hunter Papageno and a magical flute that holds the power to change the hearts of men, young Tamino embarks on a quest for true love, leading to the evil Sarastro's temple where Pamina is held captive. The Pierre Audi production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte was recorded live at the 2006 Salzburger Festpiele.
Carlos Kleiber: I am Lost to the World
Austrian classical conductor Carlos Kleiber (1930-2004) was as eccentric and reclusive as he was brilliant, persistently and obstreperously declining to participate in the international music community or business. This set him apart from his more public contemporaries, such as Herbert von Karajan. This biographical documentary attempts to resolve the ambiguities surrounding Kleiber. The product of exhaustive research, it features rare performance footage of Kleiber leading orchestras, and draws on interviews with individuals who knew and worked with the maestro, including Otto Schenk, Riccardo Muti, Michael Gielen and Ioan Holdender. Carlos Kleiber also turns up to conduct a series of illustrative musical excerpts.
Verdi Ernani
It truly is an historic performance. Domingo looking and singing like a god pouring out golden tones; Renato Bruson sounds, like the sublime Verdian Baritone that he was at that time; Nicolai Ghiaurov proves again that he was one of the greatest "Verdi Basses"; Mirella Freni shows that there was more to her than just being Mimi and Susannah-in fact I can remember reading that at the time of the premiere of this production that there were fist fights (not unusual in La Scala's gallery) between Mirella's many fans--between those fans that just wanting her to continue singing the light lyric repertoire that they were use to her singing and those that felt she should and could sing the lyric-spinto repertoire which, of course, she proved that,indeed, she could (She's still singing more than twenty years later). This performance captures some of the best Verdi singers of the time doing dear ole wonderful Giuseppi proud.
Conducting Mahler
Documents the interpretations of Gustav Mahler's compositions by conductors Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Chailly, Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, and Simon Rattle, who detail the special relationship they have with Mahler's work.
New Year's Concert 2018
For the New Year’s Concert 2018 world-renowned conductor Riccardo Muti returns to conduct the New Year’s Concert for the fifth time. He has conducted the Vienna Philharmonic for over 500 concerts, has a very close connection to the orchestra and is one of the most engaged New Year’s Concert conductors. Italian conductor Muti holds two music directorships: the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini. A prolific recording artist, Muti has received dozens of honors, titles, awards and prizes throughout his career.
Production
Attila
Live from La Scala 1991
Guglielmo Tell
Live from La Scala Wednesday 14 December 1988.
I vespri Siciliani
The story revolves around a Sicilian rebellion against the French, fueled by themes of oppression, freedom, and the personal costs of conflict. The opera explores a love triangle, a troubled father-son relationship, and culminates in a bloody uprising during a wedding celebration.
La Donna del Lago
Based on a narrative poem by Sir Walter Scott and set against the backdrop of feudal Scotland, "La Donna del Lago" is one of Gioacchini Rossini's finest operas -- yet it's rarely performed. This video gives viewers a rare opportunity to see the work in its entirety. Filmed at Italy's famed Teatro alla Scala in 1992 and staged by German film director Werner Herzog, the opera features vocalists Ricardo Muti and June Anderson in leading roles.
Don Carlo
This opera was filmed live at La Scala in 1992. The all-star cast includes Luciano Pavarotti, Samuel Ramey, aolo Coni, Daniela Dessi, Luciana d'Intio, and Alexander Anismov. Riccardo Muti conducts.
Cosi Fan Tutte
Officers Ferrando and Guglielmo are certain that their lovers Dorabella and Fiordiligi are faithful to them, but the cynical Don Alfonso challenges them to a bet that the women will be unfaithful given the chance. The officers thus pretend to go off to war, and return in disguise as Albanian strangers, to woo Dorabella and Fiordiligi incognito. The ladies are initially frosty, but soon warm to their new suitors, spurred on by their maid Despina. Performed at the La Scala Theatre in Milan.
Pergolesi: The Brother in Love (La Scala)
Live from La Scala Friday 22 December 1989
Rossini: Moïse et Pharaon
Live from La Scala Wednesday 10 December 2003
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. This version is conducted by Riccardo Muti at La Scala, Milan.
Don Giovanni
The 2004 Opus Arte DVD release of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni (recorded at Teatro alla Scala in 1987) is highly regarded by English-language critics as a definitive "traditional" production, notable for its legendary collaboration between conductor Riccardo Muti and director Giorgio Strehler.
Gallery
