Arturo Toscanini was born on 25 March 1867 in this house in the Oltretorrente district: a working-class, music-loving neighbourhood, proud and politically restless, which Toscanini remained attached to throughout his life.
With the approval of his family the young Toscanini devoted himself to musical studies with great passion, attending since 1876 the Royal School of Music (later renamed Conservatory in 1888 for direct intervention by Giuseppe Verdi), where he graduated with honors in cello and composition in 1885.
Documents retracing the highlights of the career of the Maestro are collected in this first room: photos depicting the Parma Music Conservatory, the masters Giusto Dacci and Leandro Carini who are linked to the years of study of the child Toscanini, the uniform worn by students and the dormitory
The minuet Riverenze, inchini, baci con sorrisi by Arturo Toscanini by Museo Casa Natale Arturo ToscaniniCasa della Musica
as well as some first compositions written by the young Arturo himself.
Casa Natale Arturo Toscanini. Cortile by Museo Casa Natale Arturo ToscaniniCasa della Musica
Bust of Arturo Toscanini conducting. E. B. Douglas. Bronze, green marble.
The man and the artist
We wished to recreate in this room (just the one where Arturo Toscanini was born on March 25, 1867) a space where his objects, his musicians, his family and his portraits come together to outline the traits of man and artist between document and emotion.
Casa Natale Arturo Toscanini. Birth room by Museo Casa Natale Arturo ToscaniniCasa della Musica
The paintings by Giacomo Grosso, depicting Toscanini and his wife Carla de Martini,
To embellish this environment, some objects of daily use including the sofa, a dressing gown of the Maestro and his poncho.
Casa Natale Arturo Toscanini. Birth room by Museo Casa Natale Arturo ToscaniniCasa della Musica
A panel entirely dedicated to historical events that highlight the civil, moral and political commitment of the Maestro as opposed to the dictatorships of fascism and Nazism.
The image of the myth
As in a sort of film editing, some of the most famous Toscanini photographic portraits made by Robert Hupka (1919-2001) - a sound engineer for the RCA and for Columbia, and later cameramen for the CBS - are gathered in this room. In this series of images the Maestro is caught in the middle of his work as a music director, during some recording sessions at the helm of "his" NBC Symphony Orchestra.
Casa Natale Arturo Toscanini. The image of the myth by Museo Casa Natale Arturo ToscaniniCasa della Musica
Robert Hupka has accompanied the career of the Maestro for about twenty years, taking more than 1200 photographs.
Piano room
During a career that has few comparisons in terms of duration, intensity and magnitude of results, Toscanini had faced an immense repertoire, conducting the greatest symphony orchestras in the world, along with some of the most famous soloists and the most famous singers of the international opera houses.Testimonies about the composers - Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner - who were the main track along which the path of "Toscanini-musician" has unwound are gathered in this room.
Together with them, a particularly significant role was played by Giacomo Puccini - both for the friendship he shared with the Maestro, and for the very important occasions in which this bond was finalised in a musical event, like the conduction of Toscanini at the opening nights of La bohème, La fanciulla del West and Turandot.
Casa Natale Arturo Toscanini. The piano room by Museo Casa Natale Arturo ToscaniniCasa della Musica
Alongside the great composers, the extraordinary performers who formed unequalled casts under his baton: from Aureliano Pertile (the "tenor of Toscanini", the artist who perhaps better than any other was able to interpret the musical will of the Maestro) to Lotte Lehmann and Enrico Caruso. And again Renata Tebaldi, Toti dal Monte, Claudia Muzio, Rosetta Pampanini, Titta Ruffo, Tito Schipa, and gradually other great singers: a firmament that brings together the greatest performers of the opera house of the first half of the Twentieth century.
The Kitchenette
Almost in contrast to those international clamours that Toscanini has always welcomed, not without ill-concealed reluctance, we wished to recreate that atmosphere of tranquillity and privacy that the Maestro has never stopped looking for, whenever he could break away from his artistic commitments in this intimate and private corner of the birthplace of the Maestro - a small kitchen, typical of a poor home.Here are shown photos and reproductions of images that immortalise these "islands of peace", in which the Maestro is surrounded by his loved ones, rather than in moments of rest and total solitude.
Isolino San Giovanni, Villa Toscanini (veduta dal Lago Maggiore) (20th Century)Casa della Musica
In the majority of cases, the Lago Maggiore and, in particular, the Isolino of San Giovanni - the favourite hideaway of the Master - are the background of these family relaxing moments.
Casa Natale Arturo Toscanini. Audio-video room by Museo Casa Natale Arturo ToscaniniCasa della Musica
In this room new documents and memorabilia have been added, which had been kept so far in the Historical Archives of Teatro Regio of Parma (Casa della Musica)
With all the force of primogeniture, Toscanini represents an idea of absolute modernity that owes much both to the way of understanding the role and function of the modern conductor, and to the very close relationship he established with the media, from records to radio, from the printed press to television. This formed the basis of a career that was in many ways inimitable and which gave him unparalleled, universal and lasting fame.
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