Return of the Native

After Allied bombers got through with Milan's famed La Scala in August 1943, all that was left was the stage and four walls. Last week La Scala had been put back together again (at a cost of $350,000 that a lot of Italians felt could have been better spent on bread and shelter). To its reconstructed podium stepped little, white-haired Arturo Toscanini, 79, who had scored some of his greatest triumphs there.

Toscanini, voluntary exile from Italy since 1938, had flown to Italy at his own expense, to conduct six concerts without pay. He...

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