Watch Arturo Toscanini - Wagner, Overtures and preludes

Fifty years after his death, Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957) remains a legendary figures of conducting. For the Italian Maestro, Wagner always held a special status: he inaugurated his first appointment at La Scala in 1898 with Die Meistersinger and made his final public appearance in 1954 with an all-Wagner program. His motto: "Be democrats in life but aristocrats in art".