Walter Meyer wrote:

>As has been pointed out elsewhere, he became a strong opponent of Fascism,
>refusing on numerous occasions (including the premiere of *Turandot*) to
>conduct the Fascist hymn.  FDR had to intervene w/ Mussolini in 1938 to
>have Toscanini's passport restored.  As the first non-German conductor at
>Bayreuth, he broke with the festival in 1933 over Hitler's ban on Jewish
>artists and never returned.  Similarly, his appeearances at the Salzburg
>Festival ended abruptly w/ the Anschluss.

Toscanini was a man of considerable moral courage.  He was not one to take
an easy course because his career would have been harmed by another course.
It has little to do, I suppose, with his conducting merits and demerits,
but still.....

Bill S