''Hymn of the Nations'', originally titled ''Arturo Toscanini: Hymn of the Nations'', is a 1944 film directed by Alexander Hammid, which features the '' Inno delle nazioni'', a patriotic work for tenor soloist, chorus, and orchestra, composed by Italian

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

composer Giuseppe Verdi in the early-1860s. For this musical work, Verdi utilized the

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and Europea ...

s of several European nations.

Production

In December 1943, Arturo Toscanini filmed a performance of this music for inclusion in an

Office of War Information The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...

documentary about the role of Italian-Americans in aiding the Allies during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Toscanini added a bridge passage to include arrangements of "

The Star-Spangled Banner "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the b ...

" for the United States and "

The Internationale "The Internationale" (french: "L'Internationale", italic=no, ) is an international anthem used by various communist and socialist groups; currently, it serves as the official anthem of the Communist Party of China. It has been a standard of t ...

" for the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and the

Italian partisans The Italian resistance movement (the ''Resistenza italiana'' and ''la Resistenza'') is an umbrella term for the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social ...

. Joining Toscanini in the filmed performance in NBC Studio 8-H, were tenor Jan Peerce, the

Westminster Choir , mottoeng = Let us be judged by our deeds , established = 1926 , type = Private , president = Gregory G. Dell'Omo , dean = Marshall Onofrio , city = Dayton, OH (1926–1929), Ithaca, NY (1929–1932), Princeton, NJ (1932–2020), Lawrencev ...

, and the NBC Symphony Orchestra. The film also included the overture to Verdi's opera '' La Forza del Destino''. The narration was written by

May Sarton May Sarton was the pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton (May 3, 1912 – July 16, 1995), a Belgian-American poet, novelist and memoirist. Although her best work is strongly personalised with erotic female imagery, she resisted the label of ‘lesb ...

, film editing by

Boris Kaufman Boris Abelevich Kaufman, A.S.C. (russian: Бори́с А́белевич Ка́уфман; August 24, 1906 – June 24, 1980) was a Russian-born American cinematographer and the younger brother of Soviet filmmakers Dziga Vertov and Mikhail Ka ...

, and narration read by actor

Burgess Meredith Oliver Burgess Meredith (November 16, 1907 – September 9, 1997) was an American actor and filmmaker whose career encompassed theater, film, and television. Active for more than six decades, Meredith has been called "a virtuosic actor" and "on ...

. The original version was released on VHS by

Blackhawk Films Black Hawk and Blackhawk may refer to: Animals * Black Hawk (horse), a Morgan horse that lived from 1833 to 1856 * Common black hawk, ''Buteogallus anthracinus'' * Cuban black hawk, ''Buteogallus gundlachii'' * Great black hawk, ''Buteogallus uru ...

, which retitled it ''Arturo Toscanini Conducts Giuseppe Verdi''. A newly restored version by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

, with the Meredith narration, has been issued on DVD.

Reception

The film was nominated for an

Academy Award for Best Documentary Short This is a list of films by year that have received an Academy Award together with the other nominations for best documentary short film. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are annou ...

. The

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...

preserved ''Hymn of the Nations'' in 2010. The film is part of the Academy War Film Collection, one of the largest collections of World War II era short films held outside government archives.

Censorship

During the post-war Red Scare, the

US government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

crudely censored "

" out of the film. The version continued to be released without any acknowledgement of censorship. The uncensored version was thought to have been lost until a print was rediscovered in Alaska.

References

External links

* *
''Hymn of the Nations''
at the

National Archives and Records Administration The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It ...

* 1944 films 1940s Italian-language films American short documentary films Films directed by Alexandr Hackenschmied 1944 short films American black-and-white films 1944 documentary films 1940s short documentary films 1940s English-language films Italian-language American films 1940s American films {{music-documentary-film-stub