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
TT

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.



UN Puts 4th Century Gaza Monastery on Endangered Site List

The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
TT

UN Puts 4th Century Gaza Monastery on Endangered Site List

The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File

The Saint Hilarion complex, one of the oldest monasteries in the Middle East, has been put on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites in danger due to the war in Gaza, the body said Friday.
UNESCO said the site, which dates back to the fourth century, had been put on the endangered list at the demand of Palestinian authorities and cited the "imminent threats" it faced.
"It's the only recourse to protect the site from destruction in the current context," Lazare Eloundou Assomo, director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, told AFP, referring to the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.
In December, the UNESCO Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict decided to grant "provisional enhanced protection" -- the highest level of immunity established by the 1954 Hague Convention -- to the site.
UNESCO had then said it was "already concerned about the state of conservation of sites, before October 7, due to the lack of adequate policies to protect heritage and culture" in Gaza.
The Hamas attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 39,175 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.