The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1938-05-27
WHO'S
NEWS
THIS
WEEK
By LEMUEL F. PARTON

Malipiero at party IN the ROY
al Danielli in Venice, soon after the
World war, thought he was one OF
the most charm
Mdflprer0 ing and brilliant,
Was Person and, at the same
70 Remember time, most cryptic
men l had ever
seen. There was in the company
another Italian musician, famous
conductor, who was the lion OF the
evening. l have forgotten his APP
pearance and his name, but every
thing about Signor Malipiero is Wv
idly remembered.
On the way home in a gondola, l
asked the conductor for an apprais-
al of Signor Malipiero as must
clan. There was considerable con-
descension in the reply.
Malipiero was gifted but err
ratio, it was even limited that he
was 'sunsound," in some deeply
subversive sense. But my Virgil
eagerly agreed that the signOr
was a most extraordinary hui
man personality.
AS recently as four years ago, a
Malipiero opera threw the Royal
opera house of Rome into a tunult
of bowling and cat-calls. Mussolini
banned it as "inimical to the faith
and sound teachings of the new It
ally" But, by this time, Malipiero
had become world-famous must
clan, and he was soon restored to
favor.
This status is unquestioned as his
symphony, "Elegiaca," was given its
=. first performance
"OutldtO" of in New York, with
Music NoW John Barbirolli
Is Lionized conducting. For
many years, criti-
cal opinion discounted him as some
what 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 "en-
ervating influence" in Malipieros
new symphony. It may be an after
thought, but the explanation seems
clear as I recall my conversation
with him. His face saddened and
he seemed ten years older when I
mentioned the war.
For his ballet, 'Pantea," he
had written of "the struggle of
a soul hurting 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
encies or banalities of music have
meaning for him. He was impelled
to a deeper search.
This establishment was subli-
mated in irony. He was suspected
ofslyly sabotaging
Suspected OF the grandiose new
Sabotage in italian state. It
1884, that his OPP
era, "The Fable of the Exchanged
Sons" with the text by Luigi Piran-
de1lo, all but caused a riot in
the Royal opera house.
So far as / could learn at the
time, there was no brash heresy in
the work, bat, 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
totalitarian state, and it was quick
ly and savagely resented. The next
day, II Duce forbade another pre-
sentation.
MalipierO is poet and mys-
tic. 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 Intel
there is a Latin text, "To the OBJ
scene, 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
studiously main
mas 1ut S0T tains a relation
Friendship ship of courtesy,
With Animals dignity and friend
ly intimacy with
the creatures in his retreat-he has
gift for friendship with animals
and thinks that much of the trouble
of mankind is due to its insensi-
tiveness to the subhuman and SUI
perhuman. His music is apt to range
into those zones.
He was born in Venice in 1882,
beginning his violin studies in his
sixth year. His father was politi-
cal exile and the family was in
Germany for many years. Wagner
was a crashing strain of modernity
which profoundly affected his work.
@ Consolidated News Features
WMTT Garvira