ABSTRACT
Despite its unevenness, Malipiero’s instrumental music of 1916–19 is itself almost enough to mark that period as one of the most intensely creative in his entire career. This impression is confirmed by his stage works of the time, and above all by two exceptionally important compositions: the strange little seven-decker opera Sette canzoni (‘Seven Songs’, 1918–19) ranks, alongside Pause del silenzio I and a small number of later pieces, as one of the most impressive things that he ever wrote; while the ‘dramma sinfonico’ Pantea (1917–19) for solo dancer, off-stage voices and orchestra, though perhaps less wholly convincing, is a work of disturbing poetic power and a psychological document of very special interest, because of the exceptional clarity with which it expresses Malipiero’s pessimistic world view in symbolic terms.
