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Toscanini at La Scala
Concert to Inaugurate the Re-Built Theatre
May 11th 1946
At the end of World War II La Scala was in ruins after an allied bombing raid in August 1943. The theatre was rebuilt within a year of the end of the war. Toscanini who had personally subscribed one hundred thousand Lire towards the reconstruction was invited to conduct the opening concert on May 11th 1946.
As a condition of his participation the conductor required the reinstatement of his former chorus master, Vittore Veneziani, a jew, who had been dismissed from the theatre in 1938 by the Fascists.
Only Italian opera music was performed: Rossini, Verdi, Boito, Puccini with the singers Tancredi Pasero, Mafalda Favero, Stabile, Malipiero, Jolanda Giardino, Giuseppe Nessi, Carlo Forti, and a young twenty-four year old Renata Tebaldi, in her La Scala debut. Finally, the choir was led by Maestro Vittore Veneziani, who had been dismissed in 1938 for racial persecutions.
GIOACHINO ROSSINI
(1792–1868)
La gazza ladra
Overture
Guillaume Tell
Three Orchestral Excerpts
Wedding Chorus
Pas de Six From Act I
Soldiers' Dance from Act III
Mosè in Egitto
Act III: Prayer: Dal tuo stellato soglio
Mose – Tancredi Pasero
Anaide – Renata Tebaldi
Maria – Jolanda Gardino
Elisero – Giovanni Malipiero
GIUSEPPE VERDI
(1813–1901)
Nabucco
Overture
Va pensiero
(Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Nabucco)
Te Deum from Quattro pezzi sacri
GIACOMO PUCCINI
(1858–1924)
Manon Lescaut
Intermezzo
Act III [complete]
- Manon – Mafalda Favero
- Des Grieux – Giovanni Malipiero
- Lamplighter – Giuseppe Nessi
- Lescaut – Mariano Stabile
- Sergente – Carlo Forti
GIUSEPPE VERDI
(1813–1901)
I Vespri Siciliani
Overture
ARRIGO BOITO
(1842–1918)
Prologue to Mefistofele
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano
Arturo Toscanini
conducting
Arrigo Boito Memorial Concert
Commemorating the Thirtieth Anniversary of the death of the Composer
June 10th 1948
Boito’s first opera, Mefistofele, was premiered at La Scala on March 5th 1868, and despite the opera’s relative lack of success, Toscanini regularly revived it at La Scala, memorably in 1901 with Caruso as Faust and Chaliapin, on his house debut, as Mefistofele.
Toscanini regularly encouraged Boito to complete his life’s work, the opera Nerone. A premiere was planned for La Scala in 1914 featuring the conductor and Caruso both then based at the Met. However, the score was not finished and remained so at Boito’s death in 1918 aged 76. Over the following years Toscanini supervised the musical completion of Nerone and presented it at La Scala on May 1st 1924 with Pertile and Journet in the most elaborate and expensive production in the theatre’s history.
Two years after the reopening concert Toscanini returned to conduct fully staged scenes from Boito’s two operas in commemoration of the composer’s death some thirty years before. Whilst most of the singers, the young Renata Tebaldi apart, had at the reopening been of the older generation of Italian singers, the Boito Memorial Concert featured the coming generation.
Mefistofele
Prologue and Act III (complete)
- Mefistofele – Cesare Siepi bass
- Faust – Giacinto Prandelli tenor
- Marguerite – Herva Nelli soprano
Nerone
Act III (complete) and Act IV scene 2
- Asteria – Herva Nelli soprano
- Rubria – Giulietta Simionato mezzo-soprano
- Nero – Giacinto Prandelli tenor
- Fanuel – Frank Guarrera baritone
- Gobrias – Giuseppe Nessi tenor
- Perside – Ebe Ticozzi mezzo-soprano
- Simon Mago – Cesare Siepi bass
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano
Arturo Toscanini
conducting
