Word: scala
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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After Allied bombers got through with Milan's famed La Scala in August 1943, all that was left was the stage and four walls. Last week La Scala had been put back together again (at a cost of $350,000 that a lot of Italians felt could have been better spent on bread and shelter). To its reconstructed podium stepped little, white-haired Arturo Toscanini, 79, who had scored some of his greatest triumphs there...
When Toscanini entered rebuilt La Scala for the first time, he clapped his hands from the center of the stage, and an echo came loudly from the rebuilt dome. "Yes," the maestro said, "it is the same." The no-piece orchestra was not quite the same at first; Toscanini drilled them firmly, but with none of his usual wrathful outbursts. On opening night they played as they had not for years. Toscanini had chosen an all-Italian program (Rossini, Verdi, Puccini) of the kind of kettledrum-banging bravado that he likes. When he played Verdi's Te Deum...
Arturo Toscanini, about to rehearse Milan's La Scala orchestra for his concert this week, confessed he was "frightened," called it off till the next day. "I am not worried about the public, which leaves me quite indifferent," he explained. "It is the orchestra. . . . It is 16 years since I last saw them. . . ." Next day the maestro was back in shape, shouted, stamped, gave a workman holy Ned for whistling...
Thirty years ago Italian-born Gabriella Besanzoni was one of the world's topflight Carmens (La Scala). Then she married Brazil's millionaire banker and industrialist. Henrique Lage. In Rio, Madame Lage held sway at smart soirees, horsed her way into Brazilian society's front ranks...
...never to return to Italy so long as The Little King and his family had any power. Reason for changing his mind: he now believes that Italy will soon become a republic. The 78-year-old conductor agreed to conduct the opening at Milan's famed La Scala next season, telephoned Rome to start rounding up singers...