Death of the Father
Media Sources: Mussolini & Italy
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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(c) 1999 John Borneman & Linda Fisher, All Rights Reserved