Meloni Joins Cultural Elite Celebrating Italian Opera's Recognition as World Treasure

A handout picture, provided by Arena di Verona Foundation Press Office, shows a moment of the celebratory evening for 'La Grande Opera Italiana Patrimonio dell'Umanita' (The Great Italian Opera World Heritage Site), the Arena di Verona, in Verona, Italy, 07 June 2024, conducted by Riccardo Muti.  EPA/Arena di Verona Foundation Press Office HANDOUTEDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES
A handout picture, provided by Arena di Verona Foundation Press Office, shows a moment of the celebratory evening for 'La Grande Opera Italiana Patrimonio dell'Umanita' (The Great Italian Opera World Heritage Site), the Arena di Verona, in Verona, Italy, 07 June 2024, conducted by Riccardo Muti. EPA/Arena di Verona Foundation Press Office HANDOUTEDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES
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Meloni Joins Cultural Elite Celebrating Italian Opera's Recognition as World Treasure

A handout picture, provided by Arena di Verona Foundation Press Office, shows a moment of the celebratory evening for 'La Grande Opera Italiana Patrimonio dell'Umanita' (The Great Italian Opera World Heritage Site), the Arena di Verona, in Verona, Italy, 07 June 2024, conducted by Riccardo Muti.  EPA/Arena di Verona Foundation Press Office HANDOUTEDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES
A handout picture, provided by Arena di Verona Foundation Press Office, shows a moment of the celebratory evening for 'La Grande Opera Italiana Patrimonio dell'Umanita' (The Great Italian Opera World Heritage Site), the Arena di Verona, in Verona, Italy, 07 June 2024, conducted by Riccardo Muti. EPA/Arena di Verona Foundation Press Office HANDOUTEDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni joined top political and cultural figures at Verona’s ancient Arena amphitheater Friday night for an open-air celebration of Italian lyric opera’s recognition by UNESCO as a global cultural treasure.
Conductor Riccardo Muti presided over an orchestra of 170 musicians from Italy’s 14 opera houses, joined by over 314 choral singers and a cast of global star opera stars who delivered a greatest hits of Italian opera from Verdi to Puccini, Donizetti to Bellini for an appreciative crowd. La Scala’s two star dancers, Roberto Bolle and Nicoletta Manni, also performed, The Associated Press reported.
“I am here to testify to my enthusiasm and my pride for the fact that Italian lyric opera has received this great recognition,″ Muti told the crowd. “Of course, this is an important moment, because recognition is never a point of arrival but a point of departure.”
“The great masterpieces are our heritage, which we Italians have given to the world,″ Muti added in a prepared message for the television audience.

While UNESCO included Italian opera on its intangible cultural heritage list in December, the Arena proved a fitting place to celebrate the milestone. The ancient stone amphitheater built by the Romans is home to a popular summer opera festival that for generations has made opera accessible to the uninitiated with lavish productions. More than half of the 400,000 spectators at the Arena each summer are foreigners.
“We have brought together the entire Italian opera system to celebrate, together with the great singers of the world,″ said the Arena’s deputy artistic director, Stefano Trespidi. “I am convinced that this evening will bring benefits to the entire music and opera system.”

Joining Italian opera stars like Luca Salsi, Francesco Meli and Vittorio Grigolo were international stars including German tenor Jonas Kaufmann, Australian soprano Jessica Pratt and Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez.

Russian soprano Anna Netrebko canceled at the last minute due to illness.



Japan’s Sado Mines Added to World Heritage List

This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)
This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)
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Japan’s Sado Mines Added to World Heritage List

This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)
This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)

A network of mines on a Japanese island infamous for using conscripted wartime labor was added to UNESCO's World Heritage register Saturday after South Korea dropped earlier objections to its listing.

The Sado gold and silver mines, now a popular tourist attraction, are believed to have started operating as early as the 12th century and produced until after World War II.

Japan had put a case for World Heritage listing because of their lengthy history and the artisanal mining techniques used there at a time when European mines had turned to mechanization.

The proposal was opposed by Seoul when it was first put because of the use of involuntary Korean labor during World War II, when Japan occupied the Korean peninsula.

UNESCO confirmed the listing of the mines at its ongoing committee meeting in New Delhi on Saturday after a bid highlighting its archaeological preservation of "mining activities and social and labor organization".

"I would like to wholeheartedly welcome the inscription... and pay sincere tribute to the long-standing efforts of the local people which made this possible," Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said in a statement.

The World Heritage effort was years in the making, inspired in part by the successful recognition of a silver mine in western Japan's Shimane region.

South Korea's foreign ministry said it had agreed to the listing "on the condition that Japan faithfully implements the recommendation... to reflect the 'full history' at the Sado Gold Mine site and takes proactive measures to that end."

Historians have argued that recruitment conditions at the mine effectively amounted to forced labor, and that Korean workers faced significantly harsher conditions than their Japanese counterparts.

"Discrimination did exist," Toyomi Asano, a professor of history of Japanese politics at Tokyo's Waseda University, told AFP in 2022.

"Their working conditions were very bad and dangerous. The most dangerous jobs were allocated to them."

Also added to the list on Saturday was the Beijing Central Axis, a collection of former imperial palaces and gardens in the Chinese capital.

The UNESCO committee meeting runs until Wednesday.