Making music from migrants' boats - 28th February 2024

Boats in which migrants risked and often lost their lives are being given a new life. They're being recreated into musical instruments in a project called 'Metamorphosis', where prisoners in Milan's Opera jail acquire instrument-making skills.

Their trainer's Enrico Allorto, a master craftsman.

Enrico Allorto: "However, when they arrive here they don't, they don't know anything about musical instruments. That's why I've taught them everything here. And this is another reason to be proud, to see that as well as getting unsuitable wood to work, people, without training, can also end up becoming artists, let's say."

The boats, seized by authorities, frequently still contain evidence of the people who took to the sea in search of a new life. They're a moving reminder of the 27,870 migrants the UN reports have died since 2014, attempting the risky crossing from Africa.

For Andrea, who's detained at Milan's Opera prison, seeing the boats makes him reflect on his own circumstances and make comparisons.

Andrea: "I keep in mind that we receive the boats with everything inside except the people. And when these pieces of reality arrive, which are so important and at times overwhelming, it's normal to reflect on them. And many times you realise that your problems, your miseries, can be much more solvable in relation to how difficult others' are."

Over a decade ago, a non-profit organisation initiated the project of creating stringed instruments. Now, using the violins, cellos and violas rebuilt from the migrants' boats, the Orchestra of the Sea's been set up, which premiered at Milan's famous La Scala.

Claudio, a detainee, feels that by transforming the boats into instruments, their voyage resumes. The memory of the victims lives on, and prisoners pick up a vital trade.

Claudio: "The boats will play, then, at the Scala, they will become musical instruments and rosaries. They'll enter people's homes to bear witness, then, to the migrant problem. While we, however, are reborn because we learn a trade, which is important in prison."

Claudio and a co-prisoner were permitted to attend the premiere at La Scala.

The instruments retain their original colours and remind the audience of their former lives. It's a transformation, or 'metamorphosis', of the boats into beautiful objects and the prisoners into craftsmen.