This museum is a unique mixed exhibition in the house where Toscanini was born. It displays the great conductor’s favourite objects as well as the furnishings among which he lived while away from Parma.
The route presents material collected by the Arturo Toscanini Foundation over time, organised thematically. The first floor contains the main rooms of the exhibition. The existing original furnishings (sofa, desk, wedding showcase) are reassembled in the room where he was born, in a display entitled L’uomo e l’artista (The Man and the Artist). The exhibits are arranged to recreate an intimate environment that captures the atmosphere of the original layout of the house in Milan.
The room named L'immagine del mito (Image of the Myth) includes Toscanini’s funeral mask and stage outfits at the centre of a dynamic recomposition of the conductor’s movements depicted in Robert Hupka’s famous photographs. The piano room called I compagni di viaggio (The Travel Companions) arranges the historical documentation of his relationships with the leading figures of his time. Almost as if they were furnishings, the new exhibition elements of the museum (showcases, display cases and costume cases, the display desk) were designed by interpreting the domestic aspect of the rooms and by reinterpreting the old household furniture as exhibits – the folding table, the chest of drawers, the display case – as elements consistent with the place and the size of the materials – small objects, papers, letters, memorabilia – while attempting to recompose a dense intimate atmosphere. Below the main exhibition space, drawers can be opened and documents can be observed up close, as in a study, just as Vincenzo Raffaele Segreto wanted.
The same rationale is served by the choice of wood finishes, in keeping with the character of the place and the relics, and in compliance with regulations, with showcases internally lit with the light gradation required by IBC conservation regulations.
La Casa della Musica
Parma, 2005-2007
Photography Giovanni De Sandre, Lucio e Silvia Rossi
