‘Le Testament de Villon’ & ‘Cavalcanti’, Ezra Pound’s “dramedies”: opera, theatre, radio-drama and TV show”

Ezra Pound’s _Le Testament de Villon_ (1926) and _Cavalcanti_ (1932) are unique in the panorama both of their author’s production (the only “musical” works of a poet and literary critic) and of Modernism tout-court. They are bold experiments blending ancient themes and subjects (the life and death of François Villon and of Guido Cavalcanti) with an innovative, experimental and arduous musical language much ahead of their times. Furthermore, they embody the typical characteristic of Modernism mixing high-brow themes and culture with popular forms of entertainment (music hall, dance, pop culture). Pound devised and realized different versions of these “sung dramedies”: for the stage, for the radio broadcast, and also for television, thus exploring all the feasible languages of his times.