[78-L] trivia

[David Lennick]

Lucky guess.

"It was while in New York, however, that his personal life interrupted his 
career momentum. Toscanini was a brilliant, forceful musician, but his passions 
extended beyond music to include a very strong libidinous nature where the 
ladies were concerned. It was during his tenure at the Met that he became 
involved with Geraldine Farrar, one of the most celebrated singers of her day; 
this was during a time when the United States was as puritanical as any 
industrialized nation in the world, and even in the relatively sophisticated 
circles of the New York opera world, with the First World War starting the 
nations of Europe on a path that would bring them to the brink of destruction, 
it was intolerable for the public to countenance such a relationship. Toscanini 
was forced to relinquish his position and hastened his plans to return to 
Italy. In a turn of fate that was fortuitous, he went back to Italy weeks 
earlier than planned; his original passage had been booked aboard the Lusitania 
that May, which was sunk by a German U-boat on the voyage he was to have taken, 
losing over 1,000 of the 1,900 people aboard."
http://www.ask.com/music/artist/Arturo-Toscanini/193415

dl

DAVID BURNHAM wrote:
> Okay, now it's time for a wild guess or two. He skipped town before Farrar's 
> husband could shoot him. He skipped town before Mrs. Toscanini could shoot him. 
> He planned on skipping town but missed the boat which turned out to be the 
> Lusitania and actually did open that whorehouse and run it for a couple of 
> years, the happiest of his life.
> 
> 
> dl
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
> 
> You guessed it, you're right on!
> 
> db