In Tuesday’s (10/1) Chicago Tribune, Krystyna Slivinski writes, “A small drab library at the Illinois Youth Center (IYC) in Warrenville came alive as Chicago Symphony Orchestra Conductor Riccardo Muti greeted about 40 female offenders, most of whom have never listened to classical music, let alone an opera. No matter. Muti, on his third visit to the facility since taking over as conductor in 2010, is on a mission to bring classical music to all walks of life, especially to young people in prison. Muti started off by kissing hands and cheeks and alternating between his native Italian and English. Within seconds, he had put the teenage girls at ease.… Getting the girls interested in an Italian opera about Shakespeare’s Macbeth was a little trickier , but Muti was a man in constant motion—explaining the tragedy and composer Verdi’s musical interpretation of the beloved play. A few days earlier, members from the CSO came in to give the girls a crash course on the opera and on Muti himself. ‘Our kids have not had much exposure to Italian opera,’ said Meade Palidofsky, artistic director for Chicago based Storycatchers Theatre that collaborates with the CSO to help select girls to express themselves through writing and performance while they serve out their sentence.”
Posted October 4, 2013
