Chapter 22New York City, the 1930s
Though Turandot would have its American premiere at the Metropolitan Opera on November 16, 1926, Toscanini would not be at its helm. But he and his former “mistress” would continue to cross paths. Toscanini had been conductor of the Met from 1908 to 1915, instituting many of the standards that were in place for the Met’s Turandot and that are still in practice today. He conducted the New York Philharmonic from 1926 to 1936. After that, he thought he was through with New York City and would return permanently to Italy and retirement but for that blasted Mussolini and another kind of dictator, David Sarnoff, who had other ideas. He was not the kind of man to be gainsaid.
A pioneer of radio and something new called television, which put pictures to sounds
