“Dear President Conte,

While understanding your difficult responsibility in this long and tragic period for our country, with the urgent need to safeguard the health, the supreme good, of our fellow citizens, I feel the need to make a heartfelt appeal.

Closing concert halls and theaters is a serious decision. The impoverishment of the mind and spirit is dangerous and also harms the health of the body. To define, as I have heard from some government representatives, theatrical and musical activity as “superfluous” is an expression of ignorance, lack of culture and lack of sensitivity.

This decision does not take into consideration the sacrifices, sufferings and responsibilities in front of civil society of thousands of Artists and Workers from all the various sectors of the show, who certainly today feel offended in their professional dignity and full of apprehension for the future, of their life.

I ask you, sure to interpret the thought not only of the artists but also of a large part of the public, to give life to theatrical and musical activities for that need for spiritual food without which society becomes brutish.

The theaters are run by people aware of the anti Covid regulations and the safety measures indicated and recommended have always been respected.

I hope that you will be able to accept this appeal, while, confidently, I greet you with warm cordiality.

Riccardo Muti“

26 October 2020

The above courtesy of Google Translate