Toscanini, Arturo

Toscanini, Arturo (1867-1957), Italian conductor.

One evening in 1886, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a company from Italy gave such a bad performance of Verdi's opera Aida, that the audience began to jeer and hoot at the conductor.

He laid down his baton and left the theater and the orchestra looked around among themselves for someone to take his place. They chose a young cello player aged nineteen. His name was Arturo Toscanini. He picked up the baton, tapped the music stand, and proceeded to conduct the opera from memory.

Arturo Toscanini had been a musician from childhood. He was playing the cello at the age of nine and he attended colleges of music in his home town of Parma and in Milan.

From his unexpected debut, he went on to become the greatest conductor of his day.

By 1898, he was principal conductor at the most famous opera house in the world, La Scala, Milan, and later conducted, and made records with many famous orchestras, mostly in the United States.

He retired in 1954 and died in New York.

Arturo Toscanini: The NBC Years (Amadeus) ~ Mortimer H. Frank