Now that would be interesting to explore a little further. Someone, somewhere must have written about Benito Mussolini and the Italian opera world. For some stars, I imagine that might have been awkward at best, horrifying at worst. The thing about fascist demagogues and personality cults, as history shows us, is that they are likely to lead to disaster for the nation that embraces them. That's just my theory.
About 10 years ago, I was in the outskirts of Rome and was flabberghasted by a mountain top homage to IL DUX even in Century 21. Trees of the forest were cut assembled and grown to feature his name god-like on the face of the mountain. Mussolini's ghost still lives among Italy from Milan to Rome with fascist architecture to this very day. Eerie and haunting.
The NYtimes 1/15/21
An animating irony of Trumpism — one common among authoritarians — is that it revels in lawlessness while glorifying law and order. “This is the central contradiction-slash-truth of authoritarian regimes,” said Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an N.Y.U. historian and the author of “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.” She cited Mussolini’s definition of fascism as a “revolution of reaction.” Fascism had a radical impulse to overturn the existing order, “to liberate extremism, lawlessness, but it also claims to be a reaction to bring order to society.”
The same is true of Trump’s movement. Central to Trump’s mystique is that he breaks rules and gets away with it. To reassert the rule of law, said Ben-Ghiat, “showing the world that he cannot in fact get away with it” is crucial.
That is part of the work of the second impeachment. This impeachment may be as much a burden for Democrats as for Republicans; a Senate trial would surely postpone some of the urgent business of the Biden administration. It has gone forward because Democrats had no choice if they wanted to defend our increasingly fragile system of government.
The very fact that Raskin will lead the prosecution of Trump in the Senate is a sign of the solemnity with which Democrats are approaching it.
Mussolini was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party from the Fascist coup d'état in 1922 to his deposition in 1943, and Duce of Italian Fascism from the establishment of the Italian Fasces of Combat in 1919 to his execution in 1945 during the Italian Civil War.
Milan's Stazione Centrale was built as Fascist architecture Roman/Baroque style in 1931. Ugly, heavy, leaky when it rains and remains in Milan.
His Mistress was a journalist who penned false articles and propaganda to aid in his rise to power. This history was shown in the great Italian film VINCERO (2009) that debuted at the Cannes Film festival. Brilliant, horrifying and unforgettable. Benito put his first wife in an insane asylum and denied the birth of their son (not a bastard child) who also went insane.
It would be an interesting program with ArtsPR in 2021 or 22.
Plaza in Milan where Mussolini was hung upside down by his boot straps. (Above). I visited this site when I lived in Milan when I was a guest of Claudio Abbado at LaScala.
Mr. Quinn, I really appreciate this powerful insight into a part of history most of us would like to forget. Then we realize it's happening again - in Belarus, in Syria, in Hungary, in Turkey, in Russia and (though many of us are still sticking our heads in the sand) in the United States. It's interesting to learn how Mussolini's fascist politics spread like a contagion into art and architecture in Italy. The garish mountain top homage you described reminds me of the Valley of the Fallen in Madrid, the mausoleum, Francisco Franco carved out of a mountainside for himself. Knowing how he traumatized Spain, I was glad to learn that his remains were yanked out of there by popular demand, an indignity he surely never anticipated (https://www.npr.org/2019/10/24/773022042/spain-moves-dictator-francisco-francos-remains-after-months-of-legal-battles), and buried in a family cemetery. Fascists seem to get their just desserts in the end. We are unlikely to hang our own neo-fascist former president upside down by his bootstraps, but I would be okay with him spending the rest of his life behind bars. Before I sign off, you should know that I'm sitting here trying to imagine being a guest of Claudio Abbado at LaScala. 🤩 Someday, please flesh out this anecdote. Thank you for sharing your insights and expertise.
When I'm not terribly excited about an aria, my mind tends to wander. Such was the case with Gaetano Donizetti's “Com'è gentil”. I may have become too attached to dramatic flourishes and vocal acrobatics in opera to appreciate a simple folk melody like this one. It's also quite possible that I will never be a fan of farces like "Der Rosenkavalier" and "Don Pasquale". Yet I remain open-minded to listening to the full opera at some point.
I enjoyed being introduced to Tito Schipa through the Edmund St. Austell blog. Curiosity led me to watch Tito Schipa's Jr.'s documentary on his father's career on stage and in film (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlWn6qbcWz4), as well as his farewell concert in The Netherlands (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47irPWFDuqA). Being chummy with Il Duce certainly tarnishes his legacy.
To go from Schipa to Juan Diego Florez was to go from a performance I found sweet and elegant to one I found a little bit sappy. Then again, a besotted Italian lover just might sound that way. I adore Pavarotti, even though his voice seemed bigger than the music called for.
As I wandered around YouTube, I also discovered Ferruccio Tagliavini, another lyric tenor, and got caught up in his appearances in a series of TV kinescopes from the1950s (https://youtu.be/IOmpSbA3qMI).
Next to Schipa, my favorite lyric tenor in this series was Alfredo Kraus. When I read about his life and career in the obituary penned by Diane Haitman, I thought about the recent Opera Daily lesson on (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-sep-11-mn-8891-story.html) opera singers who cross over into other musical genres. Kraus, she wrote ". . . never accepted a supporting role. He also spurned all offers to perform in popular musicals or mass appeal opera concerts."
She also quoted Kraus as saying: “For me, to live and breathe a role is far more important than singing it to perfection, because a perfect voice can be as dull as dishwater,” he has said. “What the public must understand is that singing is a matter of musicality, sensitivity, personality, and above all, maturity.” Who would disagree with this opinion, but what other variables might be considered?
Thank you for that. It was interesting to learn, too, that he came from Las Palmas, The Canary Islands. Maybe he was foreordained then to be a grand opera star.😊 I'll be sure to read and listen some more.
Schipa is always astounding; BUT his cozy relationship with Mussolini was not.
Now that would be interesting to explore a little further. Someone, somewhere must have written about Benito Mussolini and the Italian opera world. For some stars, I imagine that might have been awkward at best, horrifying at worst. The thing about fascist demagogues and personality cults, as history shows us, is that they are likely to lead to disaster for the nation that embraces them. That's just my theory.
Uncrating Benito in 20/21.
About 10 years ago, I was in the outskirts of Rome and was flabberghasted by a mountain top homage to IL DUX even in Century 21. Trees of the forest were cut assembled and grown to feature his name god-like on the face of the mountain. Mussolini's ghost still lives among Italy from Milan to Rome with fascist architecture to this very day. Eerie and haunting.
The NYtimes 1/15/21
An animating irony of Trumpism — one common among authoritarians — is that it revels in lawlessness while glorifying law and order. “This is the central contradiction-slash-truth of authoritarian regimes,” said Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an N.Y.U. historian and the author of “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.” She cited Mussolini’s definition of fascism as a “revolution of reaction.” Fascism had a radical impulse to overturn the existing order, “to liberate extremism, lawlessness, but it also claims to be a reaction to bring order to society.”
The same is true of Trump’s movement. Central to Trump’s mystique is that he breaks rules and gets away with it. To reassert the rule of law, said Ben-Ghiat, “showing the world that he cannot in fact get away with it” is crucial.
That is part of the work of the second impeachment. This impeachment may be as much a burden for Democrats as for Republicans; a Senate trial would surely postpone some of the urgent business of the Biden administration. It has gone forward because Democrats had no choice if they wanted to defend our increasingly fragile system of government.
The very fact that Raskin will lead the prosecution of Trump in the Senate is a sign of the solemnity with which Democrats are approaching it.
Mussolini was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party from the Fascist coup d'état in 1922 to his deposition in 1943, and Duce of Italian Fascism from the establishment of the Italian Fasces of Combat in 1919 to his execution in 1945 during the Italian Civil War.
Milan's Stazione Centrale was built as Fascist architecture Roman/Baroque style in 1931. Ugly, heavy, leaky when it rains and remains in Milan.
His Mistress was a journalist who penned false articles and propaganda to aid in his rise to power. This history was shown in the great Italian film VINCERO (2009) that debuted at the Cannes Film festival. Brilliant, horrifying and unforgettable. Benito put his first wife in an insane asylum and denied the birth of their son (not a bastard child) who also went insane.
It would be an interesting program with ArtsPR in 2021 or 22.
Plaza in Milan where Mussolini was hung upside down by his boot straps. (Above). I visited this site when I lived in Milan when I was a guest of Claudio Abbado at LaScala.
Mr. Quinn, I really appreciate this powerful insight into a part of history most of us would like to forget. Then we realize it's happening again - in Belarus, in Syria, in Hungary, in Turkey, in Russia and (though many of us are still sticking our heads in the sand) in the United States. It's interesting to learn how Mussolini's fascist politics spread like a contagion into art and architecture in Italy. The garish mountain top homage you described reminds me of the Valley of the Fallen in Madrid, the mausoleum, Francisco Franco carved out of a mountainside for himself. Knowing how he traumatized Spain, I was glad to learn that his remains were yanked out of there by popular demand, an indignity he surely never anticipated (https://www.npr.org/2019/10/24/773022042/spain-moves-dictator-francisco-francos-remains-after-months-of-legal-battles), and buried in a family cemetery. Fascists seem to get their just desserts in the end. We are unlikely to hang our own neo-fascist former president upside down by his bootstraps, but I would be okay with him spending the rest of his life behind bars. Before I sign off, you should know that I'm sitting here trying to imagine being a guest of Claudio Abbado at LaScala. 🤩 Someday, please flesh out this anecdote. Thank you for sharing your insights and expertise.
When I'm not terribly excited about an aria, my mind tends to wander. Such was the case with Gaetano Donizetti's “Com'è gentil”. I may have become too attached to dramatic flourishes and vocal acrobatics in opera to appreciate a simple folk melody like this one. It's also quite possible that I will never be a fan of farces like "Der Rosenkavalier" and "Don Pasquale". Yet I remain open-minded to listening to the full opera at some point.
I enjoyed being introduced to Tito Schipa through the Edmund St. Austell blog. Curiosity led me to watch Tito Schipa's Jr.'s documentary on his father's career on stage and in film (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlWn6qbcWz4), as well as his farewell concert in The Netherlands (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47irPWFDuqA). Being chummy with Il Duce certainly tarnishes his legacy.
To go from Schipa to Juan Diego Florez was to go from a performance I found sweet and elegant to one I found a little bit sappy. Then again, a besotted Italian lover just might sound that way. I adore Pavarotti, even though his voice seemed bigger than the music called for.
As I wandered around YouTube, I also discovered Ferruccio Tagliavini, another lyric tenor, and got caught up in his appearances in a series of TV kinescopes from the1950s (https://youtu.be/IOmpSbA3qMI).
Next to Schipa, my favorite lyric tenor in this series was Alfredo Kraus. When I read about his life and career in the obituary penned by Diane Haitman, I thought about the recent Opera Daily lesson on (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-sep-11-mn-8891-story.html) opera singers who cross over into other musical genres. Kraus, she wrote ". . . never accepted a supporting role. He also spurned all offers to perform in popular musicals or mass appeal opera concerts."
She also quoted Kraus as saying: “For me, to live and breathe a role is far more important than singing it to perfection, because a perfect voice can be as dull as dishwater,” he has said. “What the public must understand is that singing is a matter of musicality, sensitivity, personality, and above all, maturity.” Who would disagree with this opinion, but what other variables might be considered?
Alfredo Krauss had a notable (late rebirth) of his career, that is remarkable.
Thank you for that. It was interesting to learn, too, that he came from Las Palmas, The Canary Islands. Maybe he was foreordained then to be a grand opera star.😊 I'll be sure to read and listen some more.