Deryk Barker responds to James Tobin [who] wrote:

>>... Two or three decades ago someone published an article,
>> in Musical America, I
>>think, saying that Puccini was a Fascist and expressed cruelty in his
>>music.
>
>Doesn't Busoni's Turandot (which I infintely prefer BTW) also have
>essentially the same plot? Did this make Busoni a Fascist too?

Taken this way, does not this make playwright Carlo Gozzi the Fascist
and Busoni's and Puccini's musical settings mere velleities? But wait!
Busoni wrote his own libretto for Arlecchino, in which the title character
is hear to utter, some eight years or more before the event, the following
Mussolinian sentiment:  "Niemand soll sagen durfen, dass die Kultur im
Kriege unterginge!"

Draw your own conclusions.

[emoticon of your choice here].

John Wiser
Howells, NY 10932-0136
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