The last seats in Milan's La Scala opera house sold for $40 twenty minutes before curtain time last week. All of Milan society was there, in rustling silks, jewels and white ties; high above the first red-brocaded boxes sat elderly retired musicians in shiny, worn evening clothes. In all, 3,500 had jammed in to welcome their favorite son back to Milan.
When Maestro Toscanini scooted onstage, music-lovers in the peanut galleries leaned over the rails to hiss the buzz-buzz in the parquet into silence. Then, in the still, warm, muggy air (two women in the crowded audience fainted), they listened for three...
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