Politics
Unlike Verdi, Puccini did not appear to be active in the politics of his day. He wrote to a friend that he supported Benito Mussolini at first; Mussolini also made Puccini a senator shortly before the latter's death. Puccini's 1919 Inno a Roma (Hymn to Rome), although not written for the Fascists, was widely played during Fascist street parades and public ceremonies. However, evidence that Puccini was actually a member of the Fascist party is equivocal.
Read more about this topic: Giacomo Puccini
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“Politics is not an end, but a means. It is not a product, but a process. It is the art of government. Like other values it has its counterfeits. So much emphasis has been placed upon the false that the significance of the true has been obscured and politics has come to convey the meaning of crafty and cunning selfishness, instead of candid and sincere service.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“While you’re playing cards with a regular guy or having a bite to eat with him, he seems a peaceable, good-humoured and not entirely dense person. But just begin a conversation with him about something inedible, politics or science, for instance, and he ends up in a deadend or starts in on such an obtuse and base philosophy that you can only wave your hand and leave.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“Our democracy, our culture, our whole way of life is a spectacular triumph of the blah. Why not have a political convention without politics to nominate a leader who’s out in front of nobody?... Maybe our national mindlessness is the very thing that keeps us from turning into one of those smelly European countries full of pseudo-reds and crypto-fascists and greens who dress like forest elves.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)