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T<\/span>he concert at Bologna\u2019s Teatro Comunale on 14 May 1931 should have been a joyful affair. Arturo Toscanini, a major name on both sides of the Atlantic, had been invited to the recently restored opera house to give a concert of music by Giuseppe Martucci in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the composer\u2019s birth. So willing was the maestro to remember his late friend in this way that he even agreed to do it without a fee. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n As things turned out, however, Toscanini would leave the venue (and, soon after, the city itself) with cuts and bruises, without a note being played.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> The men responsible for the 64-year-old conductor\u2019s wounds were a gang of pro-fascist Blackshirts, keen to dole out retribution for an unacceptable display of unpatriotic behaviour on his part. On this occasion, it was Toscanini\u2019s refusal to include Giovinezza<\/i>, the fascist party\u2019s official hymn, in the concert that had sparked the affray. It was, however, probably an incident that had been waiting to happen \u2013 Toscanini and the Italian leader Benito Mussolini had a bit of a history.<\/span><\/p>\n Just over a decade earlier, the two had actually been on the same side. When, in 1919, Mussolini was putting forward candidates for his fledgling party in the Italian general election, he included Toscanini\u2019s name among them \u2013 after all, a little celebrity presence couldn\u2019t hurt. Toscanini, in turn, admired Mussolini\u2019s republican zeal, which, he hoped, would lead to the end of the Italian royalty. Things soon took a turn for the worse, though. After the fascists won no seats in the election, Mussolini started to turn to darker means, and mob rule, to get his way. His appointment as prime minister in 1922, serving under Victor Emmanuel III, was the final straw for Toscanini. \u2018If I were capable of killing a man, I would kill Mussolini,\u2019 he declared.<\/span><\/p>\n Several years before the Martucci celebration in Bologna, Toscanini had reacted to being asked to conduct Giovinezza <\/i>at Milan\u2019s La Scala<\/a> <\/strong>by snapping his baton in anger and storming out. This time round, the demand to have it included was made to honour two fascist party officials in the audience, and the maestro was every bit as resolute in his refusal. As he and his wife and daughter arrived at the Teatro Comunale for the performance, Blackshirts surrounded his car. Bravely, if rashly, getting out and making his way to the opera house door, he was threateningly and repeatedly asked about performing the hymn. Still he refused to bend, at which point the Blackshirts moved in, hitting him repeatedly in the face.<\/span><\/p>\n Pushed rapidly back into his car by his chauffeur, Toscanini was raced back to his hotel, leaving the Teatro Communale staff to address the expectant audience. Few believed their explanation that the conductor had simply been taken ill, and the mood rapidly turned ugly.<\/span><\/p>\n