ime and the war moved on and one day during a short leave in Rome, I was celebrating my 21st birthday at a café near the Pantheon when I noticed two things. One, my waiter was crying, and on the other side of the piazza was a funeral cortege. I asked the waiter what was wrong and he merely pointed to the cortege and said, 'Maestro Pietro Mascagni!' So my mother's favourite composer was buried in Rome on 22 July 1945. It was when we were close to Rome I heard many operas via the radio, but the standards were not as high as they would have been as most of the ladies had gone to the USA prior to the war, and wisely stayed there, and most of the men were long past their prime with a few good new voices here and there. It was here that I first heard the wonderful voice of Renata Tebaldi and even today when I hear a recording of her singing Ebben from Catalini's La Wally, I still get shivers up my spine! << less