Loads of announcements were made yesterday in Italy concerning the 50th anniversary remembrances of the passing of Arturo Toscanini. The late Maestro will be celebrated for the next twelve months throughout Italy - from Venice to Rome to Milan - via a series of cultural initiatives named, "Viva Toscanini" (Long Live Toscanini!). They will recognize Toscanini not only for his extraordinary musical career, but for his fearless, outspoken position against fascism. Take that, Mussolini!
"Viva Toscanini" is comprised of an international committee, led by Giancarlo Leone of RAI national television (and son of the ex Italian President). Others members of the board are relatives of the Maestro (granddaughter Emanuela di Castelbarco), prominent musical historians, conductors, and superintendents of Italian opera houses.
The campaign embraces elements of film (eight famous italian directors will be asked to curate a selection of representative cinema), international concerts (given in both Israel and the United States), and other various promotions. Schools in Italy will introduce a new Toscanini curriculum to celebrate the legacy of the maestro. Rome will host an exhibition, "Toscanini and his time," as well as another highlighting the women of the Toscanini family.
RAI announced that they will dedicate the entire day of January 16, 2007 (the actual fiftieth anniversary of the passing of Toscanini who died aged 90 in Riverdale, NY) to the Maestro, filling the entire RAI network with programming devoted to the late conductor. For instance, that same day, Rai Tre and Rai Radio Tre will carry the January 9, 2007 inaugural Symphonica Toscanini/Gelmetti concerto from Teatro dell'Opera di Roma.
The Barenboim/Filarmonica lol "free" lol concert at Teatro alla Scala on January 16 will be broadcast live on the radio (Rai Radio Tre) and on television (Rai Uno on January 20, at midnight.)
Rai is also manufacturing a box-set with two cds, that will boast recordings taken from their huge Toscanini archives, which will comprise of sixty-one taped performances, and two-hundred, sixty-seven musical programs.
In Parma, the house where Toscanini was born (in 1877, and then turned into a museum in 1967) will command a special inauguration, and visitors will be able to approach additional rooms where the Maestro lived, which will display rare personal effects that were collected throughout his extensive travels.
Among these treasures is the very rare volume of Verdi's Copialettere dating from 1913 with Verdi's own autograph; Puccini's Turandot score published for the opera's first staging; and various personal objects belonging to Wagner such as eyeglasses, a silver mug, and a briefcase. But among the real rarities, there is an autographed portrait of -- ah the irony for a dedicated antifascista and antiNazi like Toscanini -- Frau Cosima Wagner. If you visit the museum on January 16, you can purchase a special postcard and stamp dedicated to Arturo Toscanini.
FIELD TRIP TIME! I'll need 20 bucks from your parents and EVERYONE PICK A BUDDY!