Show WHO NEWS THIS WEEK I 1 I 1 by LEMUEL F PARTON NEW EW YORK meeting francesco Mali piero at a party in the roy al danea Danie IIi in venice soon after the world war I 1 thought he was one of or the most charm Mali piero mg ing and b brilliant r ini ant was person and at the S sams ame t to 0 remember time most cryptic men I 1 had ever seen there was in the company another italian musician a famous conductor who was the lion of the evening I 1 have forgotten his ap bearance pe arance and his name but every thing about signor signer Mali piero is viv idly remembered on the way home in a gondola il 11 asked the conductor for an appraise ap I 1 al of signor signer Mali Mall piero as a musician there was considerable con in the reply A Mali piero was gifted but er ratio it was even hinted that be was unsound in some deeply SU subversive sense but my virgil ea eagerly gerly agreed that the signor signer was a most extraordinary human personality As recently as four years ago a Mali piero opera threw the royal opera house of rome into a tumult of howling and cat calls mussolini banned it as inimical to the faith and sound teachings of the new it aly but by this time Mali piero had become a world famous musi cian and he was soon restored to favor favor this status is unquestioned as his symphony Elegia ca was given its first performance tir 1 t outlaw of I 1 in new york with music now john Barb irolli Is s lionized conducting for many years critical opinion discounted him as somewhat of an outlaw and disturber now it has caught up with him as it did with stravinsky and richard strauss both the fire bird and salome were met with cat calls when they were first produced critics note some mysterious enervating erva ting influence in Mali Mall pieros new symphony it may be an afterthought but the explanation seems clear as I 1 recall my conversation with him his djs face saddened and he seemed ten years older when I 1 mentioned the war for his ballet he be had written of the struggle straggle of 0 a soul hurling itself into the struggle for liberty only to find oblivion and death the war had been to him a tragic and devastating experience he said it had profoundly shaken both his art and his life never again would the suave flu enches or banalities of music have meaning for him he was impelled to a deeper search this disillusionment was sublimated in irony he was suspected of slyly sabotaging su suspected specter of the grandiose aran new sabotage in italian an state it new opera was in march 1934 that his opera the fable of the exchanged sons with the text by luigi dello della all but caused a riot in the royal opera house so far as I 1 could learn at the time there was no brash heresy in 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 and savagely resented the next day il II duce forbade another presentation sen tation piero is a poet and a mystic of dominant presence with sharply cut roman features and hair brushed back in a thick pompadour he is at 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 tumble down cut in the stone door lintel there is a latin text to the obscene all things are obscene obscene that was his answer to the critics of one of his operas the art of living en grosses him as much as the art of music and he studiously ma main ia has gift for bains a relation friendship ship of courtesy with animals dignity and friendly intimacy with the creatures in his retreat he has a gift for friendship with animals and thinks that much of the trouble of mankind is due to its insensitiveness ti veness to the subhuman and superhuman pe his music is apt to range into those zones he was born in venice in 1882 beg beginning I 1 nning his violin studies in his sixth year his father was a po cal exile and the family was in germany for many years wagner was a crashing strain of modernity which profoundly affected his w work ork 0 Con consolidated consolita solida t ed news features feature service |