Music
Franco Ghione
1886–1964 · conductor, violinist
Italian opera conductor, a former assistant to Toscanini at La Scala, who led the Detroit Symphony Orchestra through the late Depression years, 1936 to 1940.
- Born
Acqui Terme, Italy- Died
Rome, Italy
aged 77- Detroit years
- 1936–1940
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Ghione trained as a violinist and composer at the Parma conservatory, began conducting in 1913 and in the 1920s and 1930s became a busy opera conductor in Turin, Venice and at La Scala in Milan, where he had assisted Arturo Toscanini and led several world premieres. After Ossip Gabrilowitsch died in 1936, the Detroit Symphony hired him as music director. His four seasons fell in the orchestra's hardest financial years. He spoke almost no English, and accounts describe him exploding in frustration when the players did not understand his instructions. In 1939, with money running out, the orchestra had to leave its own Orchestra Hall for the Masonic Temple. Ghione returned to Italy in 1940 and continued to conduct opera; his recordings include Turandot with Gina Cigna and Cavalleria rusticana with Mario Del Monaco.
Highlights
- Music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, 1936–1940
- Former assistant to Toscanini at La Scala
- Led the DSO when it left Orchestra Hall for the Masonic Temple in 1939
- Recorded Turandot and Cavalleria rusticana
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Performed here · 1936–1939
Detroit Symphony Orchestra — Orchestra Hall
The DSO's own hall until 1939, when Depression-era debts forced the orchestra out; it later became the Paradise Theatre jazz house and was restored from 1970.
Performed here · 1939–1940
Masonic Temple
The huge Cass Corridor Masonic building whose theater became the orchestra's refuge after it left Orchestra Hall in 1939.