a
'Duce' is born
Image:
Mussolini on balcony of his
palace in Piazza Venezia, in Rome, addresses the Italian people, at the
height of his popularity, May 5, 1936. (photo credit: unknown)
Music: execerpt from Concerto
for Orchestra (1943) by Béla Bartók
Italy
at his feet
Image:
Mussolini strikes a noble pose atop his white horse. An equestrian of
some talent, he often used his horse as a mobile podium. (credit: unknown)
Sound:
orchestral fragment from the opera Tristan &
Isolde by Wagner. --Load
time: ~18 sec.
the
'infamous' exhibit
Image:
The corpses of Mussolini, his
mistress Claretta Petacci, and his henchmen are hanged in Piazzale Loreto
in Milan on public display, April 29, 1945. They had been executed the
day before some 50 miles to the north in Mazzegra and were now offered
to the people who spat on the corpses and kicked them. They were then
hanged by the feet. In medieval Italy it was the custom to hang crooks
or embezzlers, by one foot. The fact that Mussolini was hung by two
feet suggests the deep level of rage and betrayal felt by the people
towards their once beloved "Duce". (credit: National Archives,
USA)
Music:
The chorus "Rex tremendae" from Requiem by Mozart.
"King of majesty
tremendous,
Who dost free salvation send us,
Fount of pity, then befriend us."
hide and seek
Image:
Mussolini's disfigured corpse is displayed on
a shallow porcelain tub for the first of three autopsies, May 1945.
One year later, his corpse was stolen from its first grave by Fascists
and hidden. Found four months later, it was buried a second time, after
another autopsy, in an undisclosed location. The corpse was returned
to Mussolini's widow eleven years later, after a final autopsy, and
officially buried in Predappio on August 31, 1957. White robe in background
of photo belongs to one of the group of medical examiners who were posing
with a group of proud Italian officials and the corpse. (credit: National
Archives, USA)
Sound:
Bells from the church in Bellagio, Italy
on the shores of Lake Como. The village of Mazzegra, site of Mussolini's
execution, lies just across the lake. Standing in any one village on
the lake one can hear the bells ringing in all the villages along the
lake, often simultaneously. (recording: Linda Fisher, 1997)
no
compromise for history
Image:
The corpse of Aldo Moro,
discoverd on Via Caetani, Rome, on May 9, 1978. Moro, president on the
Christian Democratic Party, was kidnapped on the morning of March 16,
1978 as he drove to Parliament to present a controversial proposal known
as the "historic compromise" in which Communist opposition
would take a more active and supportive role in the Italian government.
The murder, never fully solved, has been a compelling story for Italians
ever since -- another strand in a long history of ideological extremism
entwined with political violence. (photo credit: newspaper photo (?)
source unknown)
Sound:
fragment of Cantata Profana by
Béla Bartók, a song of the son to his father. Text:
""we shall...hurl
you past the clearings,
and past the valleys and past the mountains
and we shall smash your body
on a dreadful rockface,
reat you with no mercy,
our beloved father,
treat you with no mercy!"
A judge in Italy's future?
Image:
Magistrate Antonio Di Pietro's
Mani Pulite (Clean Hands) anti-corruption investigations unraveled a
complex web of collusion between politics, industry and organized crime
in Italy. When his attentions turned to prime minister Berlusconi, suddenly
and enigmatically (this photo), he removed his judicial robes and ressigned,
having been accused of scandalous behavior by those he had accused (July
1994). Was he tainted by the company he kept? Was he blackmailed? Was
it a decision to explore the possiblity of his own run for political
office? There has been speculation among the millions of Italians who
watched his courtroom proceedings nightly on TV, that DiPietro, would
enter politics in a political movement also known as Mani Pulite and
that he would be wildly popular. (photo credit: Foto De Bellis, Claudio
Testa)
Sound:
excerpt from Rossini's opera La Gazza Ladra
(The Thieving Magpie), chorus of the judges:
"Be warned,
one and all,
by this example!
This is the august
temple of Themis,
the awesome,
inexorable goddess,
who weighs mankind's deeds
in the balance.
She frees the just,
protects and avenges;
but her thunderbolts
always fall
on the malefactors."
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