Riccardo Muti
Andrea Lopalo wears a face mask and plays the drums behind a transparent panel to curb the spread of COVID-19 during a lesson at the Giuseppe Verdi Music Conservatory, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, April 29, 2021. Whatever the instrument, flute, violin or drums, students at Italy's oldest and largest music conservatory have been playing behind plexiglass screens during much of the pandemic as the Conservatory found ways to preserve instruction throughout Italy’s many rolling lockdowns. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
AP PHOTOS: Playing on at Italy's oldest music conservatory

By Colleen Barry And Antonio Calanni Jun. 12, 2021 03:10 AM EDT

FILE - In this Dec. 30, 2017 file photo, Italian Maestro Riccardo Muti conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra during a rehearsal for the traditional New Year's concert at the golden hall of Vienna's Musikverein. With a purposeful nod and flick of his baton, the 79-year-old conductor on Sunday, May 9, 2021, ended what has been an unexpectedly long silence in Italian theaters, enrapturing a socially distanced and masked audience with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s first live performances since fall, two evening concerts of Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms, in his adopted hometown of Ravenna. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak, file)
Muti: Pandemic year silenced culture, leaving world stunned

By Colleen Barry May. 10, 2021 05:52 AM EDT

A visitor is framed by the large-scale bronze statue of the Capitoline Wolf, a she-wolf milking the twin-founders of Rome, at the Rome's Capitoline Museum, Monday, April 26, 2021. Italy is gradually reopening on Monday after six months of rotating virus lockdowns. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Italy opens again amid hopes for real economic relaunch

By Colleen Barry Apr. 26, 2021 02:28 AM EDT

FILE - Boston Symphony Orchestra music director James Levine appears during a performance at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass., on July 7, 2006. Levine, who ruled over the Metropolitan Opera for 4 1/2 decades before being eased out when his health declined and then fired for sexual improprieties, died March 9, 2021 in Palm Springs, Calif., of natural causes, his physician of 17 years, Dr. Len Horovitz, said Wednesday, March 17. He was 77. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
James Levine, who ruled over Met Opera, dead at age 77

By Ronald Blum Mar. 17, 2021 10:44 AM EDT

FILE - In this June 21, 2002 file photo, a huge pyramid dominates the stage of the opening performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida in the Verona Arena, northern Italy. Riccardo Muti will open the season on June 19 and 22, conducting a concert version of “Aida” to mark the 150th anniversary of the Verdi title whose pageantry has made it a festival mainstay. (AP Photo/Claudio Martinelli)
An 'optimistic' Verona Arena announces summer opera lineup

By Colleen Barry Mar. 11, 2021 02:42 PM EST

Salzburg Festival forges ahead with full program for 2021

By Ronald Blum Dec. 10, 2020 12:37 PM EST
The Salzburg Festival in Austria is forging ahead with a full program for 2021 after becoming one of the few classical music organizations to manage a limited...

FILE - In this early Sunday, Oct. 25, 2020 file photo, A military vehicle drives past La Scala opera theater in Milan, northern Italy. The number of performers at Milan’s famed La Scala opera house positive with the coronavirus has risen to 21, even as the theater was forced to close due to new government restrictions aimed at curbing the virus’ resurgence. La Scala spokesman Paolo Besana confirmed Tuesday that 18 members of the world-class chorus and three woodwind players in the orchestra have the virus. That comes after two singers, including tenor Francesco Meli, tested positive, ahead of planned concert performances last week of “Aida.’’(AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)
Virus cases spike at Milan's La Scala, Naples' San Carlo

By Colleen Barry Oct. 27, 2020 04:41 PM EDT

FILE - In this Jan. 1, 2018 file photo, Italian Maestro Riccardo Muti conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra during the traditional New Year's concert at the golden hall of Vienna's Musikverein, Austria. Nine musicians from the Syrian diaspora in Europe are playing in the 24th friendship concert conducted by Riccardo Muti, this year at the Paestum archaeological site in southern Italy, but the coronavirus pandemic blocked others from arriving directly from Syria. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak, File)
Muti conducts Syria musicians in memorial concert amid ruins

By Colleen Barry Jul. 05, 2020 10:03 AM EDT

Italian Maestro Riccardo Muti, top center, prepares to direct a concert at the Ravenna Festival, in Ravenna, Northern Italy, Sunday, June 21, 2020. Riccardo Muti has sent a resounding message that live classical music has returned the Italian stage after the coronavirus lockdown with a full summer festival program in his adopted Ravenna. (AP Photo/Colleen Barry)
From Italy, Muti looks to reopen US classical music scene

By Colleen Barry Jun. 22, 2020 07:14 AM EDT

This June 5, 2020 photo released by the Wiener Philharmoniker Orchestra shows pianist Daniel Barenboim conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in Vienna, Austria. Its 2,854-seat Musikverein, considered by many the world’s most beautiful concert hall, was filled with only 100 people Friday for the first of three days of programs with Barenboim. (Dieter Nagl/Wiener Philharmoniker Orchestra via AP)
Vienna Philharmonic purrs back to life after pandemic pause

By Ronald Blum Jun. 09, 2020 01:40 PM EDT

FILE - In this Jan. 1, 2018 file photo, Italian Maestro Riccardo Muti conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra during the traditional New Year's concert at the golden hall of Vienna's Musikverein, Austria. Riccardo Muti will conduct a youth orchestra in an open-air concert launching the annual Ravenna Festival next month in what organizers billed Friday May 22, 2020, as Italy’s first live classical music performance since its strict lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak, File)
Muti to conduct classical music's return to Italian stage

By Colleen Barry May. 22, 2020 05:50 AM EDT