Toscanini in His Own Words

I have reservations about the format used by this film. Mixing documentary sequences with rendering of real life dialogs by actors involves the risks of theatricality, and seldom or never generates something valuable from a documentary or artistic point of view. It is the case with this docu-drama which uses some of a footage of the great conductor Toscanini who was quite well filmed during his life and merges them with the acting of some of the dialogs recorded by Toscanini's son in the last years of his life. The result is quite respectful and true to the memory of the musician, but has no real breakthrough from a biography point of view and no dramatic revelation from an artistic or documentary angle. The little dramatization around seems to have at least one historical mistake - Guido Cantelli whose wife is presented in the dramatization spending the New Year eve 1957 with Toscanini and telling about her husband conductor being on a tour was actually dead at that date, having died in November 1956 in a plane clash. The score is composed of good music, but music fans following music documentaries at TV stations like Mezzo or ARTE are already familiar with these as well. Overall an average didactic level documentary that does not bring too much of new, for classical music fans to enjoy only.

Can I just point out that if you listen at the end of the documentary,they are wishing each other happy 1955! I think you may be getting confused with Toscanini's stroke which happened three years later in 1957. I agree that this film may not give us much more biographical detail than some books already do,but I think there is a directness,given that it was based on Walter's (illicit) tapings. I wonder what the Maestro would have thought if had known that so many of his words were being recorded? It still managed to teach me many things I never knew about Toscanini,and for that I am grateful. It's a shame there aren't more films like this on the dumbed down (UK) TV system.