Ever since the 16th-Century Florentines first evolved it (under the impression that they were re-creating the Greek tragedy), opera has been to Italians what cinema is to the U. S. public. Nearly every theme in literature has been through the operatic chutes. A total list of the operas written by Italians during the past four centuries would run well into the tens of thousands.
But where symphonic music is concerned, Italy has been strangely unproductive. Though proverbially musical, and as hungry for opera as for pasta, the Italian public can hardly be dragged to...
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