Possible Clues:

• & 19 Composer and conductor are, in isolation, flawed
• Original 'Spy vs. Spy' cartoonist Prohias
• Italian merchant's donation, wanting day off
• Merchant offering a pound off
• The title character in 'The Merchant of Venice'
• He owed a pound of flesh? A strange notion
• Italian cultural theorist imprisoned by Mussolini
• Soldier with cut head threatened merchant
• Merchant opposed to accepting leg over
• — Vivaldi, composer