Walter Meyer ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>James Tobin wrote:
>
>>it is a regrettable historical fact that Puccini was made an honorary
>>member of the Fascist Party, which came to power in 1922 and, in 1924,
>>the year he died, he was made Senatore del Regno.
>
>Toscanini also flirted w/ fascism in the early 20s before its horrors were
>fully appreciated.

Actually stood as a Fascist candidate in an election in IIRC 1919.

>Puccini may have died too soon to realize that or to be
>faulted for not realizing it.

But you are probably right.  I have a friend who studied with Klemperer
tells me that he (and many other people in whom this would be viewed today
as insanity) actually thought the National Socialists coming to power in
Germany was a good thing.  Not for long...

>>for anyone interested, the author's argument was based on Puccini's
>>harmony, particularly in Tosca, Act II.
>
>I probably don't know enough about Puccini's harmony to understand the
>article if I did read it, but Tosca, fascist? Come onnn!  If the opera is
>anything politically, it's an attack on the authoritarian police state.

I thought it was Turandot which incurred this charge.

Deryk Barker
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