Tears and Pride in Rome

Recently Riccardo Muti, the brilliant conductor and long-time director of La Scala, conducted a marvelous concert at the Opera House in Rome, featuring a performance of “va pensiero,”  a chorus from Nabucco.  In this wonderful, moving, unforgettable video, there are only French subtitles, but suffice to say that the slaves of Rome are very worried about the future of their country.  It’s a very successful performance, and the crowd goes wild.

At this point, Muti speaks (referring to himself in the third person, for those who care about such things) and laments the lack of support for Italian culture.  He says if things don’t change, the country will lose its great cultural life.  And he invites the audience to join with him and the choir to do a reprise.

You should watch it.  Keep a Kleenex handy.  It’s one of those moments that makes me proud to have become an adopted Italian.  And why the Ledeens keep going back.  Nobody does this sort of thing as well as the Italians do…