Riccardo Muti Helps The Rome Opera Restore Its Former Glory

Resurrecting Rome Opera
Italian maestro conductor Riccardo Muti from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra speaks during a press conference on October 13, 2011 at the Royal Opera in Stockholm. Tonight Muti will receive Birgit Nilsson prize from Swedish king and queen. AFP PHOTO / SCANPIX SWEDEN / CLAUDIO BRESCIANI ***SWEDEN OUT*** (Photo credit should read CLAUDIO BRESCIANI / SCANPIX/AFP/Getty Images)
Italian maestro conductor Riccardo Muti from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra speaks during a press conference on October 13, 2011 at the Royal Opera in Stockholm. Tonight Muti will receive Birgit Nilsson prize from Swedish king and queen. AFP PHOTO / SCANPIX SWEDEN / CLAUDIO BRESCIANI ***SWEDEN OUT*** (Photo credit should read CLAUDIO BRESCIANI / SCANPIX/AFP/Getty Images)

ROME -- The work was by Verdi. Three fine young singers held the Rome Opera's stage. But the spotlight, one night last month, was unmistakably on the maestro in the pit, Riccardo Muti.

And not just figuratively. It might have been a trick of the gloomy lighting of Werner Herzog's production of "I Due Foscari," but at the opening-night performance two spotlights trained on the conductor's stand seemed at times to illuminate Mr. Muti more than anybody else, casting a sheen on his jet-black mane.

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