Giuseppe Bellantoni (1880-1946) was another outstanding Italian baritone whom opera seems to have forgotten. Born in Messina, Sicily he went to Rome in his early 20s to study under the legendary baritone Antonio Cotogni (1831-1918). Alas, Cortogni’s career preceded the recording era. Everyone including Verdi and Toscanini thought him the prince of baritones. When his…
Malice as the cause of a malign event is often evoked when stupidity is the real culprit. Conspiracies rarely get to action as a screw up typically intervenes before the planning stage is finished. When a conspiracy actually succeeds it is almost always the result of multiple failures of systems or structures that should have…