Olga Rudge & Ezra Pound: "What Thou Lovest Well..."

146 The Subject Is—Wartime
harvest season. The Accademia was not open to students, but the Count
invited her to continue with her administrative duties. He enclosed a
concert program and a clipping about a thirteenth-century feud between
the Tolomeis and the Salambenis, of interest to Olga because the Palazzo
Capoquadri belonged to the Salambeni clan.
In carefully phrased Italian, Olga replied that she would not be returning
to the Accademia that summer: ‘‘I have not been very well . . . I miss
that lovely light Sienese air.’’ Of the concert: ‘‘I do not believe that such
important unpublished works have been performed anywhere, either in
Italy or abroad, and . . . that other great Antonio [Guarneri] assures
absolute perfection of execution.’’ She continued to keep in touch with the
Count throughout the summer and to listen to the Accademia concerts on
the radio, including an all-Vivaldi program in August. Sebastiano Luciani
was trying to get permission from the government to inspect the Vivaldi
manuscripts in Turin; he hoped that Olga and Mortari, another member of
the Comitato Coordinatori, would accompany him. Maestro Casella was
already there in his studio.
Life in the coastal towns was di≈cult during wartime, food scarce.
Mary returned to Casa 60 in the fall, but there was little of interest for an
active teenager: ‘‘They ain’t even a cinema to take the child to,’’ according
to Olga. When Ezra gave Mary a thousand lire as a Christmas gift, she
asked to go to Rome with him.
Mail came irregularly to Sant’Ambrogio, often in batches, ‘‘dunno if for
convenience of the old postino, or what,’’ Olga pondered. In January 1943,
she received notice that her house at 252, calle Querini in Venice had been
sequestered. A Captain Piglini was occupying it.
A Mr. Bruers from the Royal Academy of Italy and a Milanese publisher
had contracted to print an edition of Vivaldi’s works, ‘‘wholly at the expense
of the Royal Academy,’’ the Count wrote, though Luciani and the
Accademia would have full editorial control. He credited Olga for the Vivaldi
revival and continued to tease her about her ‘‘priest, the little pig, not
to say outright swine, despite all the love that he inspired in you.’’
In Sant’Ambrogio, Olga was happy to see the cherry tree in bloom after
a di≈cult winter, and she opened the window wide to enjoy the sight. She
was going through an orgy of housecleaning for Ezra’s return. Mary was