of the opera, the cast of which included such prominent names as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Graziella Sciutti. The opera had a triumphal outcome, and it nothing but confirmed Cantelli's "exceptional directorial abilities." The opera was repeated in Johannesburg, where it came to an "equally sensational success." He was named Musical Director of La Scala on 16 November 1956. Cantelli was called in the United States to conduct a series of concerts with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, but tragedy struck. He died in the crash of LAI Flight 451 at Orly Airport in Paris, France only a week after he was named director of La Scala, on 24 November. He was 36 years old. Toscanini, who was in failing health and died less than two months later, was not informed of Cantelli's death. At the time of his death, Cantelli was being considered as the next music director of the New York Philharmonic, as successor to Dimitri Mitropoulos; instead, Leonard Bernstein (who also guest conducted the NBC Symphony) was appointed conductor of the Philharmonic in 1958. Toscanini had elected Cantelli his "spiritual heir" since the beginning of his career. A "sensible and refined artist," Cantelli is remembered as a "living presence in the Italian music world," especially as an "admirable example of professional seriousness, whose artistic commitment was constantly aimed at achieving a severe and unquenchable stylistic perfection." Cantelli had a strong will, and characterial endowments that enhanced his communicative skills and magnetism. He had a wide repertory, that he always conducted from memory even during rehearsals. He performed "a very rigorous systematic analysis, noting the salient phrases of each composition in the margins of each score, also specifying rhythmic characteristics and interpretative aspects." Massimo Mila stated that for Cantelli "conducting was a peremptory and absolute vocation, an inexorable determination," which allowed him, in a short time, to size "the most recondite secrets of the art of conducting, and to reach a surprising artistic maturity very soon." He studied with the greatest, learning their secrets and benefiting from their experience, yet never imitating anyone, "manifesting without hesitation his artistic personality," entering, in each execution, in an "almost supernatural state that isolated him from the surrounding world." Cantelli had been made "one of the most representative figures in the contemporary directorial panorama" by the aforementioned gifts along with, among other things, his communicative skills with the orchestra and the public, the