Arturo Toscanini
La vita e il mito di un Maestro immortale

22nd March – 4th June 2017

Arturo Toscanini was born in Parma on March 25, 1867. The program of initiatives of Teatro alla Scala, to celebrate 150 years from the birth and 60 from the death of the great conductor, culminates in the concert directed on March 25 by Riccardo Chailly, but opens on March 22 with the opening of the exhibition “Arturo Toscanini – The Maestro: A life in pictures”curated by Harvey Sachs and Franco Pulcini at the La Scala Theater Museum, until August 20. The exhibition (virtual tour) is realized together with Rizzoli Libri Illustrati, editor of the volume of the same title edited by Professor Marco Capra, and is made possible, like the volume and the video, by the exclusive support of Salini Impregilo. The precious collaboration continues with the Ricordi Archive which created the application that compares the versions of Falstaff directed by Toscanini in 1937 and 1950. During the inauguration a video will be screened on the life of Maestro Toscanini, edited by the biographer Harvey Sachs.

Teatro alla Scala and the Museum intend to celebrate the director who brought the theater to a new degree of musical excellence, according to the new intentions of the twentieth century, and at the same time pay tribute to a man who was faithful to the democratic ideals of Mazzini and Garibaldi . Musical perfectionism, concentration on the show, absolute commitment to performance are all issues related to his figure as an artist and organizer. After Toscanini, the figure of the conductor himself has changed in the collective imagination and in his function within La Scala but also in the United States and in the world. His work is also linked to the introduction of the German symphonic repertoires among the Italian public; in fact, in 1930, Toscanini was the first non-German conductor to conduct at the Bayreuth Wagnerian Festival.