THE CANTO FOR PEACE CONTINUES TO RESONATE

 

(…) in a world

which is often troubled and violent

we shall announce to the weak

the happiest of messages:

compassion, reconciliation

and peace (…)

 

The first world performance of the Canto for Peace at Le Muse Theatre kept all the promises that were made on the eve of this tremendous event. Placido Domingo, with his extraordinary voice and powerful interpretation, stirred the emotions and enthusiasm of the entire audience that crowded the house on 28^th April.

The Prayer recited by Pope John Paul II during the interreligious meeting held in Assisi in January 2002, put into music by Marco Tutino and interpreted by the great Spanish tenor, continues to resonate outside the walls of Le Muse theatre in Ancona. After being broadcast by RadioTre Rai, by Rai Uno immediately prior to the Canonization Mass from Madrid, by the Spanish broadcasting corporation TVE and by a number of other broadcasters, the Canto will be re-aired on 25^th May when the recording of the entire Musiche per la Speranza (Music for Hope) concert performed by the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana (Philharmonic Orchestra of the Marche Region) and the Coro Lirico V. Bellini Lyrical Choir will be broadcast by Rai RadioTre.

Italian and overseas periodicals and daily newspapers continue to write wonders about this event, devised by the artistic director of the lyrical season at Le Muse theatre, Claudio Orazi, and accomplished by the Le Muse Theatre Foundation on the permission of the Archdiocese of Ancona-Osimo.

 

Taken from the national press report

 

“(…) and now this performance by Placido Domingo, the most extraordinary tenor in the world. Those of you who might have looked for him in Rome (he is currently singing at the Opera House in Sly by Wolf-Ferrari) would have found him in Ancona, at Le Muse Theatre, where he provided an inspired performance in the first ever rendition of the Pope’s prayer, to the music of Marco Tutino. Just as thrilled, and indeed thrilling, were the performances of the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana, the Coro Lirico “Vincenzo Bellini”, and even the audience”.

(Erasmo Valente, l’Unità)

 

“We must remember that there was a famous precedent during the Twentieth century: the Pacem in terris Cantata on the noble Encyclical of Pope John, one of the most moving pages by Darius Milhaud, the great composer of Jewish religion. That passage, which marked the meeting of two different faiths, was created in Aspen, USA, in July ’63, just a few months from the historic Encyclical by Pope John. Placido Domingo ruled the evening and was behind the success of the passage and the pressing request by the audience for him to do an encore”.

(Antonio Brega, L’Osservatore romano)

 

“The Canto was repeated fully in an encore, as was the case on a number of occasions in the history of music for pages (or indeed entire works!) of particular immediate enjoyment. The Canto for Peace is now among these”.

(Carla Maria Casanova, La Gazzetta del Sud)

 

“The applause was provided by an audience made up of exponents from the three main monotheist religions: a strong delegation of Catholic prelates, led by Cardinal Sergio Sebastiani representing the Vatican, the president of the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy, Mohamed Nour Dachan and the president of the Jewish community in the Marche Region, one of the oldest in Italy, Franca Ascoli Foà”.

(N/A, La Stampa)

 

“There are no doubts as to Placido Domingo’s talent: and when he performs, the whole audience gets to its feet”.

(Dino Villatico, la Repubblica)

 

“From a purely melodious aspect, Domingo gave it his all: the expression, the warmth and colour of a vocality that knows no boundaries, and the great adaptability to a text such as this one that demands both tension and softness”.

(Virgilio Celletti, Avvenire)

 

“Tutino kept well away from intellectualism: he conveyed the tone of a prayer with a declaimed, expressive calm that was far from trivial, which gradually opens up to the melody leaving the moment of meditation to the contributions of the choir interpolated by the orchestral glissandos. Domingo in turn avoided the emphasis in a song marked by moments of softness (“Salvation and forgiveness”), of subtle anxiety (“In a world which is often troubled and violent”) and of hope (“your Word shall teach us to invent peace”)”.

(Alfredo Gasponi, il Messaggero)

 

“Domingo is delighted with these interweaving rhythms cadenced by a central register perfectly suited to his natural talents, with these sacred suspended moods, from which it seems as though some sort of “revealed” truth is about to materialise at any time”.

(Fabio Brisighelli, il Corriere Adriatico)

 

“The work of a skilled craftsman, carefully devised for Placido Domingo’s charismatic ability to convey words, supported by the flexibility of the conductor Renato Palombo”.

(Lorenzo Arroga, National Daily Newspapers: Il Resto del Carlino, La Nazione, il Giorno)