Toscanini Mini-Festival
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Toscanini Mini-Festival
In January 2009, there will be several local events concerning Arturo Toscanini:
January 15 Seminar at CUNY, James Melo & Harvey Sachs, panelists
January 21 Theatrical Concert with Escher String Quartet
January 22 Documentary Film preview of new film by Larry Weinstein with pre-film introduction by Walfredo Toscanini and Harvey Sachs
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Theatrical Concert
January 21
Toscanini: Nel mio cuore troppo di assoluto (Too much of the absolute in my heart)
Based on the letters of Arturo Toscanini with the music of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Guido Alberto Fano, Aldo Finzi, Verdi, Respighi, Martucci, Wagner and Gershwin.
Presented by Ensemble for the Romantic Century, in partnership with the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies at Columbia University.
Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957), the most celebrated conductor in history, was admired also for his opposition to Fascism and Nazism. His clashes with Mussolini and Hitler and his trips to Palestine to conduct an orchestra made up of Jewish refugees from Europe showed the world that artists can raise their voices against totalitarianism. During World War II he lived in exile in the United States, gave benefit concerts to further the war effort, and assisted other musicians to immigrate and find work. “Toscanini, Nel mio cuore troppo di assoluto”, is based mainly on the hundreds of passionate letters Toscanini wrote to his lover Ada Mainardi during the 1930's, in which he discussed political, artistic, and personal matters, and on his letters to Mussolini, Hitler, Roosevelt, and others. They reveal the thoughts of an artist who had the courage to say no to the tyrants of his time. “Toscanini” will feature music by younger contemporaries of Toscanini who were forced to flee Italy as well as works by Verdi and Respighi and will incorporate some of the historical recordings of Toscanini in rehearsal and concert.
Written by Eve Wolf
Directed by Donald T. Sanders
Production & costume design by Vanessa James
Audio design by Jessica Paz
John Hellweg as Arturo Toscanini
Escher String Quartet: Adam Barnett-Hart, Violin; Wu Jie, Violin; Pierre Lapointe, Viola; Andrew Janss, Cello
C J Camerieri, trumpet
Eve Wolf, piano
Pre-concert lecturer Harvey Sachs, author of Toscanini, editor and translator of The Letters of Arturo Toscanini
Wednesday, January 21, 2009, 8:00pm (7pm Pre-concert lecture)
The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies at Columbia University (Casa Italiana)
1161 Amsterdam Avenue (just south of 118th Street), New York, New York
General admission tickets: $45, $15 Students (with ID)
Tickets: 212-288-8020 www.romanticcentury.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Free Seminar
January 15
To Dare To Say No
ERC is in residence as a musicological affiliate to the Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation at the CUNY Graduate Center.
James Melo, ERC's musicologist and Senior Editor at RILM
Harvey Sachs, author of Toscanini, editor and translator of The Letters of Arturo Toscanini,
By the late 1920s, Arturo Toscanini - then in his early sixties - was music director of La Scala in Milan and the New York Philharmonic, and beyond a doubt the most celebrated conductor in the world. He had worked with many of the world's most important opera ensembles and symphony orchestras, had brought about major reforms in the former, and had raised performance standards in the latter. But his hatred of Mussolini's fascist regime was beginning to become public knowledge in Toscanini's native Italy, and in 1931 he was struck and knocked down by fascist thugs for refusing to conduct the Fascist Party's anthem before a concert. This only strengthened his resolve not to comply with Mussolini's edicts: he declared that he would not perform again in Italy unless and until the fascist regime fell, and he extended his protest to Germany in 1933, when Hitler came to power, and to Austria in 1938, when that country became part of the Third Reich. In 1936 and 1938 he went to Palestine at his own expense to conduct the new symphony orchestra (now the Israel Philharmonic) made up largely of Jewish refugees from central Europe, and he spent the war years in exile in the United States, where he conducted concerts to benefit the Allied war effort and the Red Cross, helped refugee musicians less fortunate than himself to find work, and participated, with other leading Italian antifascist exiles, in efforts to insure that postwar Italy would have a truly democratic government. In this seminar, Harvey Sachs, who has written books on Toscanini as well as the history Music in Fascist Italy, will discuss the impact of antifascism on Toscanini's life, and Toscanini's position in the antifascist movement.
Free Admission
Thursday, January 15, 5:30 - 7:30 pm
CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Ave., Skylight Room, 9th floor
Information 212-288-8020
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Free Documentary Film Preview
January 22
Toscanini in His Own Words
Directed by Larry Weinstein
The film screening will be preceded by an introduction, with Walfredo Toscanini
Presented by Ensemble for the Romantic Century, in partnership with the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies at Columbia University and with the permission of Idéale-Audience, Paris.
The making of a new film about Arturo Toscanini became feasible in 2007, fifty years after the conductor's death, when his family allowed his biographer, Harvey Sachs, to listen to many dozens of hours of unpublished tapes of the Maestro in conversation with friends, family members, and colleagues. These tapes, recorded without Toscanini's knowledge during the last years of his long life, revealed much about a man who had never granted interviews or written about himself for publication. Together with excerpts from the hundreds of Toscanini's letters that Sachs edited and translated for publication in 2002, excerpts from the conversation tapes form the basis of this new TV film, in which actors playing the roles of the aged Toscanini and various friends and relatives are offset by documentary film footage, including home movies provided by the Toscanini family. The film, produced by Idéale-Audience, directed by Larry Weinstein, and co-authored by Weinstein and Sachs, will be shown on the BBC, Arte, and other international networks in 2009.
Free Admission
Thursday, January 22, 8:00 pm
The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies at Columbia University (Casa Italiana)
1161 Amsterdam Avenue (just south of 118th Street)
Information 212-288-8020
In January 2009, there will be several local events concerning Arturo Toscanini:
January 15 Seminar at CUNY, James Melo & Harvey Sachs, panelists
January 21 Theatrical Concert with Escher String Quartet
January 22 Documentary Film preview of new film by Larry Weinstein with pre-film introduction by Walfredo Toscanini and Harvey Sachs
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Theatrical Concert
January 21
Toscanini: Nel mio cuore troppo di assoluto (Too much of the absolute in my heart)
Based on the letters of Arturo Toscanini with the music of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Guido Alberto Fano, Aldo Finzi, Verdi, Respighi, Martucci, Wagner and Gershwin.
Presented by Ensemble for the Romantic Century, in partnership with the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies at Columbia University.
Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957), the most celebrated conductor in history, was admired also for his opposition to Fascism and Nazism. His clashes with Mussolini and Hitler and his trips to Palestine to conduct an orchestra made up of Jewish refugees from Europe showed the world that artists can raise their voices against totalitarianism. During World War II he lived in exile in the United States, gave benefit concerts to further the war effort, and assisted other musicians to immigrate and find work. “Toscanini, Nel mio cuore troppo di assoluto”, is based mainly on the hundreds of passionate letters Toscanini wrote to his lover Ada Mainardi during the 1930's, in which he discussed political, artistic, and personal matters, and on his letters to Mussolini, Hitler, Roosevelt, and others. They reveal the thoughts of an artist who had the courage to say no to the tyrants of his time. “Toscanini” will feature music by younger contemporaries of Toscanini who were forced to flee Italy as well as works by Verdi and Respighi and will incorporate some of the historical recordings of Toscanini in rehearsal and concert.
Written by Eve Wolf
Directed by Donald T. Sanders
Production & costume design by Vanessa James
Audio design by Jessica Paz
John Hellweg as Arturo Toscanini
Escher String Quartet: Adam Barnett-Hart, Violin; Wu Jie, Violin; Pierre Lapointe, Viola; Andrew Janss, Cello
C J Camerieri, trumpet
Eve Wolf, piano
Pre-concert lecturer Harvey Sachs, author of Toscanini, editor and translator of The Letters of Arturo Toscanini
Wednesday, January 21, 2009, 8:00pm (7pm Pre-concert lecture)
The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies at Columbia University (Casa Italiana)
1161 Amsterdam Avenue (just south of 118th Street), New York, New York
General admission tickets: $45, $15 Students (with ID)
Tickets: 212-288-8020 www.romanticcentury.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Free Seminar
January 15
To Dare To Say No
ERC is in residence as a musicological affiliate to the Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation at the CUNY Graduate Center.
James Melo, ERC's musicologist and Senior Editor at RILM
Harvey Sachs, author of Toscanini, editor and translator of The Letters of Arturo Toscanini,
By the late 1920s, Arturo Toscanini - then in his early sixties - was music director of La Scala in Milan and the New York Philharmonic, and beyond a doubt the most celebrated conductor in the world. He had worked with many of the world's most important opera ensembles and symphony orchestras, had brought about major reforms in the former, and had raised performance standards in the latter. But his hatred of Mussolini's fascist regime was beginning to become public knowledge in Toscanini's native Italy, and in 1931 he was struck and knocked down by fascist thugs for refusing to conduct the Fascist Party's anthem before a concert. This only strengthened his resolve not to comply with Mussolini's edicts: he declared that he would not perform again in Italy unless and until the fascist regime fell, and he extended his protest to Germany in 1933, when Hitler came to power, and to Austria in 1938, when that country became part of the Third Reich. In 1936 and 1938 he went to Palestine at his own expense to conduct the new symphony orchestra (now the Israel Philharmonic) made up largely of Jewish refugees from central Europe, and he spent the war years in exile in the United States, where he conducted concerts to benefit the Allied war effort and the Red Cross, helped refugee musicians less fortunate than himself to find work, and participated, with other leading Italian antifascist exiles, in efforts to insure that postwar Italy would have a truly democratic government. In this seminar, Harvey Sachs, who has written books on Toscanini as well as the history Music in Fascist Italy, will discuss the impact of antifascism on Toscanini's life, and Toscanini's position in the antifascist movement.
Free Admission
Thursday, January 15, 5:30 - 7:30 pm
CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Ave., Skylight Room, 9th floor
Information 212-288-8020
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Free Documentary Film Preview
January 22
Toscanini in His Own Words
Directed by Larry Weinstein
The film screening will be preceded by an introduction, with Walfredo Toscanini
Presented by Ensemble for the Romantic Century, in partnership with the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies at Columbia University and with the permission of Idéale-Audience, Paris.
The making of a new film about Arturo Toscanini became feasible in 2007, fifty years after the conductor's death, when his family allowed his biographer, Harvey Sachs, to listen to many dozens of hours of unpublished tapes of the Maestro in conversation with friends, family members, and colleagues. These tapes, recorded without Toscanini's knowledge during the last years of his long life, revealed much about a man who had never granted interviews or written about himself for publication. Together with excerpts from the hundreds of Toscanini's letters that Sachs edited and translated for publication in 2002, excerpts from the conversation tapes form the basis of this new TV film, in which actors playing the roles of the aged Toscanini and various friends and relatives are offset by documentary film footage, including home movies provided by the Toscanini family. The film, produced by Idéale-Audience, directed by Larry Weinstein, and co-authored by Weinstein and Sachs, will be shown on the BBC, Arte, and other international networks in 2009.
Free Admission
Thursday, January 22, 8:00 pm
The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies at Columbia University (Casa Italiana)
1161 Amsterdam Avenue (just south of 118th Street)
Information 212-288-8020
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