MALCOLM S. BREMNER,
Sir, - The review of The Letters of Arturo Toscanini (Books, July 27th) was of great interest - not least as local booksellers here, from whom I requested it, had no knowledge of it. Your review should facilitate the search. But the reference in it to Pelléas et Mélisande as being the only opera Toscanini ever performed in the original language was even more interesting.
What about the operas of Verdi, Puccini and his other compatriots? And could he have been, not only the first non-German to conduct at Bayreuth, but also the first to do so there in a language other than the original German? If so, he did indeed deserve the epithet "the master's mastery". - Yours, etc.,
MALCOLM S. BREMNER, Shanagarry, Midleton, Co Cork.