Gerardo Constantini V. wrote:

>here is a tip:I'm sure Toscanini and Dmitri Mitroupulos,both two had a kind
>of fotographic memory,they can see mentaly every page,every note,and so
>on.From Mitroupulos i kwnew from reading,and for Toscanini,for reading
>too+testymony of a person who was at that time in charge of organization
>and rehearsals,in concerts who also knew Alfredo Casella,who also in his
>book "Il Pianoforte" speak about this.

I'd always heard that Toscanini had to memorize the scores he conducted
because his nearsightedness prevented him from reading it on the podium.

If this is true, it renders fiction the story that a tourist in Milan who
had obtained a ticket for a Toscanini performance of Aida at La Scala in
hopes of watching T conduct w/out a score was outraged and felt cheated
when he saw the maestro furiously turning pages of a score as he was
conducting.  He complained to the manager insisting that he had been
induced to buy his ticket under false pretenses, viz., that he had been
led to believe that Toscaninin would be conducting Aida w/out a score and
there, before the entire audience, he was conducting w/ a full score in
front of him which he was furiously following as he was turning the pages.
The manager explained that the score the maestro had before him was not
that of Aida, which he was conducting, but that of Norma, which he was
going to be conducting the following evening.

Walter Meyer