Word: toscanini
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They were rather slow to commit themselves, those who went. They were awed by the solemnity of the occasion, by the magnificence of Toscanini's production. It was not pappy, they said, not dull. Nor yet had it the characteristics of Boheme. It seemed rather not to be like Puccini at all. It was spectacular, Chinese with a decidedly Italian flavor, the story of a beautiful, cruel princess, chaste as a buttercup, up for marriage to the one who succeeds in unraveling three riddles she propounds. The Prince of Persia comes, dares to try, to risk his head...
...performance at the Scala last week ended with the death of Liu, the slave girl, the first scene in the last act, at which point Toscanini turned to the audience, said: "The composer worked until this point and then died." It seemed uncanny to the audience that it should have ended with the slave girl's aria, the one big bit of unaffected melody. They waited eagerly to hear the ending written by Puccini's friend, Franco Alfano, from Puccini's notes, with which the Scala company is already prepared. They commended, meanwhile, the superb Turandot of Rosa Raisa...
...work well, he was a success, a sensational success, some said. On the basis of his success he was engaged for this season as a regular conductor for a ten-week term. Last week he arrived, began rehearsals with an orchestra still quivering with the thrill of Toscanini's administration, gave his first concert in Carnegie Hall...
Critics reached under their chairs, found the duffel-bags full of ready-to-wear words and opinions that they had tucked there surreptitiously at the first Toscanini concert, drew them out. They dared to comment on "occasional roughness," "lagging tempo," "indiscriminate climaxes and crescendos"; agreed that he had acquitted himself well, commended his "energy," his "enthusiasm," his "excellence." One of them took out "sensational," looked at it earnestly, put it back again...
...Leaders of the New York Philharmonic for the season 1925-26: Willem Mengelberg, first half; Wilhelm Furtwangler, second half; Arturo Toscanini, guest conductor; Henry Hadley, associate conductor...