Word: parman
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...Scala, in Milan, Arturo Toscanini conducted a new opera by Ildebrando Pizzetti. Its story, taken from a mediaeval monk's chronicle, was that of "a young Parman of low birth, layman, idiot, and fool," one Gherardhino Segarello, whose reckless career of devotion and debauchery caused him to be put in jail, led out only to amuse guests when the Bishop of Parma gave a banquet. Pizzetti had chosen to make a martyr of this squalid clown, to endow his dishonorable poverty with Franciscan splendor...
...Gherardo, the poor Parman is a religious rebel who gives all his money to the poor and dares combat with the Church of Rome. He is not, however, entirely a saint. His lusts lead him to betray a sympathetic virgin who later returns to help him conduct his holy reforms. Gherardo, veering like a mediaeval Elmer Gantry between his passion for this girl and his passion for reform, is led at last to betray his followers in an effort to secure her release from jail. In this effort he fails. He watches her being strangled and is then carried...