In June 1886, in a Rio de Janeiro theater on the verge of a riot, a 19-year-old cellist named Arturo Toscanini put down his instrument, picked up an abandoned baton, and conducted Aida flawlessly from memory. This episode explores how that night set the standard for a career defined by a photographic memory for music, an unyielding devotion to the composer's intent, and a temper that became legendary. We look at his harsh training at the Parma Conservatory, his lifelong refusal to eat seafood after a childhood diet of boiled fish, and the moment Verdi admitted that Toscanini was right about an unwritten tempo change in the Te Deum.

We then follow his reforms at La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera, where he dimmed the house lights, standardized orchestral seating, and banned encores mid-opera. The conversation turns to politics: his early ru ...