Show WHO'S NEWS THIS WEEK I By LEMUEL F. F PARTON N NEW EW YORK Meeting Meeting Francesco at a party in the Roy Roy- Royal Roal Royal al Danielli in Venice Ventre soon after the World war I thought he was one of the most charm charm- ing and brilliant Was Wat Person Peron and at the same to Remember time most cryptic men I had ever seen There was in the company another Italian musician a famous conductor who was the lion of the evening I have forgotten his hla appearance appearance appearance ap ap- and his hla name but everything everything every ever thing about Signor Signer Is II vividly vivIdly vividly viv viv- idly remembered On the way home In a gondola I asked the conductor for tor an appraisal al of Signor Signer as 81 a musi musi- cian There was considerable condescension condescension con in the reply 1 was lifted fitted but bat erratic er en- It was even hinted that he was unsound In some deeply subversive sense lense Out Dot my Virgil U eagerly agreed that the signor Imor was a most extraordinary human human fallman hu hu- man personality As recently as four years ago a opera threw the Royal opera house of or Rome Into a tumult of howling and cat catcalls Mussolini banned it as inimical to the faith and sound teachings of the new It- It It aly But by this time had become a world famous musician musi clan cian and he was soon restored to favor This status Is unquestioned as II his symphony was given its first Performance an n n t Outlaw of 0 In jn New York with Music Matte Now John Is I. Lionized conducting For many years critical critical cal opinion discounted him as somewhat some some- somewhat what of an outlaw and disturber Now it has caught up with him asit asIt as asit it did with Stravinsky and Richard Strauss Both the Fire Bird and Salome were met with cat catcalls when they were first produced Critics note some mysterious enervating enervating enervating en Influence in new symphony It may be an afterthought afterthought after after- thought but the explanation seems clear as I J recall my conversation with him His face saddened and he seemed ten years ears older when I mentioned the war For his hll ballet ballel be he had bad written of or the struggle ofa of or ofa ora a soul hurling Itself into the struggle for tor liberty only to find and oblivion and and death The war had had been to to him a and devastating experience II He said It bad had profoundly shaken both his art and his life lite Never again would the suave fluencies flu fluencies or banalities of music have meaning for him He was Impelled to a deeper search This disillusionment was sublimated sublimated mated in irony He was suspected of slyly sabotaging Suspected j of 0 the grandiose new Sabotage In Italian state It New Opera was in March 1934 tha that t his opera opera op op- era The Fable of the Exchanged Sons with the text by Luigi dello all but caused a riot Inthe in inthe inthe the Royal opera house So far as 81 I could learn at the time there was no brash heresy inthe Inthe in inthe the work but as elaborated by the text a subtle hint that ultimate truth is forever elusive and supreme power dead sea fruit That of course is dangerous doctrine in a totalitarian state and It was quickly quick ly and savagely resented The next day II Duce forbade another pre presentation l Is a poet and a mys mys- tic or Of dominant presence with willi sharply rut cut Roman features and hair brushed back In a thick pompadour be he Is at al the same time extraordinarily gracious friendly and unassuming He lives in a quaint stone villa forty or fifty miles from Venice centuries old rambling and nd tumble tumble- down Cut in the stone atone door lintel there Is a Latin text To the obscene obscene ob ob- ob- ob scene acene all things are obscene That was his answer to the critics of one of his operas The art of living engrosses him as much as the art of music and he heti studiously main main- ti ft t Has Ha Gift Grit for or twins a relation relation- Friendship ship of courtesy With Animal Animals dignity and friendly friend friend- ly Intimacy with willi the creatures in n his retreat retreat retreat-he he has hasa a gift gt for friendship with animals and thinks that much of the trouble of mankind is due to its insensitiveness t to the subhuman and su su- Ills His music is apt to range into those zones He lie was born in Venice in 1882 beginning his violin studies in his sixth year Ills His father wasa political cal exile and the family was InGerman in Germany German for many years yeara Wagner was waa a crashing strain of modernity which profoundly affected his work C CI Consolidated New Newa Features WN 7 Service |