The booming crescendo of Allied guns in Normandy and central Italy might sound to many European musicians like Beethoven's "Fate knocking at the door."
Last week a mob of anti-Fascist Italians sacked the Roman villa of Beniamino Gigli, famed tenor, who in 1932 quit the Metropolitan and returned to Italy in a huff after refusing to accept a depression pay-cut. Tenor Gigli was accused of friendliness with Nazi officials in Italy.
Others who heard the knocking:
Richard Strauss, generally rated the greatest living composer, a consistent opponent of the Nazis, who nevertheless in...