III - Towards the Light of Freedom: 1945–1948

Summary

The composition of Liriche greche continued during the later war years, and by October 1943, when the almost year-long occupation of Florence by German forces began, Dallapiccola had already set the translations of Sappho and Alcaeus. At that crucial moment in the war, when the people of Florence had to endure the misery and degradation of foreign occupation, the composer was faced with a double threat, from the dangers of the war, and from the anti-semitism then sweeping Italy and threatening the security of his Jewish wife. For a time, Dallapiccola considered emigrating to Switzerland, where he had many friends and had frequently given concerts, but he decided instead that he and his wife Laura would take refuge in various places in Florence and Fiesole. It was while he was there, hiding from the authorities and in constant threat of betrayal, that he began work on the libretto of his second opera Il prigioniero (The Prisoner): he read the complete libretto through to a group of close friends in Fiesole at Christmas 1943. The opera was eventually completed in 1948 and given its first performance at the end of 1949, and together with the Liriche greche, the work represented Dallapiccola’s most important creative activity during the later war years.

As the hostilities in Europe came to their conclusion, however, new creative projects began to appear. The immediate postwar period in Italy was a difficult one for musicians. Although Italy had not suffered the largescale destruction of infrastructure experienced in Germany during the same period, there were nonetheless serious problems to be overcome, and in an article Dallapiccola wrote for a music journal during this period, he vividly described some of the difficulties he had encountered:

Italian musicians lack everything: composers lack manuscript paper, violinists and cellists lack strings, and it is no wonder that for years harpists have had to set up their instruments with any old bits and pieces. Pianists and composers have to go to absurd lengths to hire an upright piano, first-class young instrumentalists have to get experience “in the abstract,” or else by grasping any heaven-sent opportunity to make use of a Steinway.