The 15-21 October 1950 edition of radiocorriere discussing the 1951 Verdi cycle to be broadcast over RAI.
The year 1951 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the great Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi, in 1901. To commemorate the enormous contribution that Verdi made to Italian cultural life, the Italian radio service, Radio Italiana or Rai for short, took the courageous decision to broadcast virtually all of Verdi’s operas during the course of 1951, the anniversary year.
RAI had been broadcasting its own opera productions since 1931. The broadcasts were not handled centrally but were produced by the major regional centres of the network: initially Rome and Turin. Milan, which was to become a major broadcasting hub, participated for the first time during the 1950-51 season and Naples participated sporadically from 1951 onwards. Each of the three major hubs, Milan, Rome and Turin, had its own symphony orchestra in the post-war era.