La Scala concert features violins that inmates made from battered migrant boats

The violins, violas and cellos played by the Orchestra of the Sea in its debut performance Monday at Milan’s famed Teatro alla Scala carry with them tales of desperation and redemption

MILAN -- The violins, violas and cellos played by the Orchestra of the Sea in its debut performance Monday at Milan’s famed Teatro alla Scala carry with them tales of desperation and redemption.

The wood that was bent, chiseled and gouged to form the instruments was recovered from dilapidated smugglers’ boats that brought migrants to Italy’s shores; the luthiers who created them are inmates in Italy’s largest prison.

The project, dubbed Metamorphosis, focuses on transforming what otherwise might be discarded into something of value to society: rotten wood into fine instruments, inmates into craftsmen, all under the principle of rehabilitation.

Two inmates were granted leave to see the concert featuring 14 prison-made stringed instruments playing a program that included works by Bach and Vivaldi. They sat in the royal box alongside Mayor Giuseppe Sala.

“I feel like Cinderella,” said Claudio Lamponi, as a friend approached in the lobby before the show with a bow-tie to complement his new suit. “This morning I woke up in an ugly, dark place. Now I am here.”