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Music: Maestro’s Fidelio

1 minute read
TIME

Arturo Toscanini is unquestionably the world’s greatest opera conductor. But until last week he had not conducted opera anywhere for eight years, in the U.S. for nearly 30. Since 1915, when he quit after a row with General Manager Giulio Gatti-Casazza, the maestro has not considered the Metropolitan up to his exacting standard.

A radio performance of Beethoven’s masterpiece, Fidelia, finally broke the spell. The first installment was broadcast last Sunday on the regular Toscanini-conducted NBC Symphony program, with a second installment to follow this week. For his Fidelia the maestro drew heavily on the Metropolitan’s roster, allotted principal roles to Sopranos Rose Bampton and Eleanor Steber, Tenor Jan Peerce, Baritone Herbert Janssen, Bass Nicola Moscona. At the end of the broadcast, a distinguished audience—including half of Manhattan’s top-rank musical celebrities, who had frantically begged their invitations—caught its breath, hoped fervently that the maestro might somehow make a more lasting peace with opera in the U.S. The Toscanini Fidelia would probably rank as the No. 1 event of the musical season.

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