"When Toscanini finally brought the La Scala company to Vienna, in 1929, the twenty-one-year-old Herbert von Karajan attended a performance of Verdi’s “Falstaff,” and later recalled, “From the first bar, it was as if I had been struck a blow. I was completely disconcerted by the perfection that had been achieved. The agreement between the music and the stage performance was something totally inconceivable for us.” “Falstaff” was Toscanini’s favorite opera, but he also revealed the structural integrity and dramatic distinction of the mid-period Verdi works—“Rigoletto,” “Il Trovatore,” “La Traviata”—that were considered tired and old hat when he was young. After Toscanini, people stopped condescending to Verdi." (David Denby, "The Toscanini Wars," New Yorker Magazine, 7/3/2017)