Studio: A Carthago Films/Canal Plus/FR3/La Sept/Italian International Pictures/RAI-TV/Channel 1
Running time: 113 minutes
Il Giovani Toscanini/Young Toscanini (1988)
“Arturo Toscanini’s audition for a place at the Scala is deferred. Rossi engages him for a tour of South America. In love with Margherita, he takes part in a demonstration against slavery in Brazil, then replaces the conductor for a performance of Aïda.” [From StudioCanal]
Cast
Arturo Toscanini: C. Thomas Howell
Nadina Bulichoff: Elizabeth Taylor
Sister Margherita: Sophie Ward
Mother Allegri: Pat Heywood
Claudio Rossi: John Rhys-Davies
Dom Pedro II: Philippe Noiret
Claudio Toscanini: Franco Nero
Mantelli: Irma Capece Minutolo
And with Nicholas Chagrin, Leon Lissek, Carlo Bergonzi, Giovanna Stella La Nocita, Simon Gregor and Elsa Agalbato
Crew
Director: Franco Zeffirelli
Producers: Fulvio Lucisano and Tarak Ben Ammar
Screenwriter: William H. Stadiem
Cinematographer: Daniele Nannuzzi
Art Directors: Andrea Crisanti, Enrico Fiorentini and Angela Santucci
Costumes: Tom Rand
Editors: Jim Clark, Brian Oats, Franca Silvi and Amadeo Giomini
Associate Producer: Giuseppe Pisciotto
Singing Voice of Elizabeth Taylor: Aprile Millo
Did You Know?
The opulent 1988 production Young Toscanini reunited Elizabeth with director Franco Zeffirelli for the first time since The Taming of the Shrew two decades earlier. Elizabeth starred as the fictional opera singer Nadina Bulichoff in this dramatization of the early career of the legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini. In his autobiography, written while he was planning Young Toscanini, Zeffirelli described the film as “a tale which combines the beginnings of the great man’s career in music with the awakening of his manhood.”
Elizabeth’s singing voice in the film was dubbed by the American operatic soprano Aprile Millo. “They told me Taylor had worked on several Aida scenes but somehow seemed frightened, turned off—she didn’t know the language or the character. ‘Who is Aida?’ she asked me. I wanted to help her explore this special world, so we had eight hours together and established a rapport. I told her to hunt for something spiritual in the music. She listened to me sing and actually cried. Other times I made her laugh, put her at ease. This great actress suddenly became like a little girl. She went nuts over Aida.”
Elizabeth’s husband, Mike Todd, had considered making a film on the life of Toscanini. His son, Mike Todd Jr., wrote that Toscanini had agreed to conduct the music for a biopic on the Russian composer Tchaikovsky.