VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Riccardo Muti will be conducting a concert in the Vatican in honor of Pope Benedict XVI.

He's the second big-name maestro to be conducting for the pope this spring. La Scala opera house announced last week that Daniel Barenboim would conduct Beethoven's Ninth symphony when the pope visits Milan on June 1.

Muti will lead Rome's Teatro dell'Opera in selections from Vivaldi and Verdi in the May 11 concert, which is being offered to the pope by Italy's president in honor of the seventh anniversary of his election to the pontificate.

Benedict is a classic music aficionado and himself plays the piano.

Muti, currently music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted selections of Verdi in 1983 when Pope John Paul II became the first pope to attend a performance at La Scala.