Barnet, Miguel: Brief an Henze, Hans Werner. Sonntag, 1. Dezember 1985
author: Barnet, Miguel
language: en
availability: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Dec. 1, 1985
Dear Hans;

I hope you received the book on Cuban Art that I sent about 6 months ago.[^1] I have not heard from you since then. When I was in Spain last October [According to what Barnet had written in an earlier letter, he was in Madrid from 24 to 31 December 1984, but probably also in October 1985.] I tried to call you but I felt guilty and I did not take the phone. [This sentence seems to be a justification in response to Henze's complaint in his letter of 16 January 1985.] I am in debt with you because I think now I can facilitate an invitation for you to come and nothing was clear until tonight. I just came back from a very important Congress of intellectuals where García Márquez and Luigi Nono among other people you know were here.[^2]

[^1: The book that Barnet sent Henze in summer 1985 may have been the catalogue of a painting exhibition at the Museo National de Cuba in 1978, which was in Henze's library in Marino and is now kept at the library of the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold.]

[^2: The congress Barnet is referring to is the II Encuentro de Intelectuales por la Soberanía de los Pueblos de Nuestra América (Second meeting of intellectuals for the sovereignty of the peoples of our America) held in La Habana on 29 November 1985. As stated in the essay Defining audible democracy: new music in post-dictatorship Argentina by Violeta Nigro Giunta, pp. 125-143, Gabriel García Márquez gave a speech entitled Palabras para un nuevo milenio (Words for a new millennium), whose typescript speech is kept at the Harry Ransom Center and Luigi Nono also participated in a panel discussion.]

My conversations with Marcia Leiseca were very good and we spent a lot of time talking about you together with Alicia Alonso who now is the director of the National Theater ; a beautiful (2) huge and elegant installation where the 3 of us are planning to perform Cimarrón for the next year, because 1986 is the centennial of the abolition of slavery in Cuba[^3] and we plan to celebrate it with this program and your presence. [From the theatre programmes, reviews and correspondence consulted so far, it has not emerged that El Cimarrón was performed in Havana in 1986.]

[^3: The transatlantic slave trade in Cuba was abolished in 1886. Numerous cultural events were organised for the centenary celebrations of the abolition of slavery, including conferences and the foundation of the Casa de África in Havana. See Schmieder, Lugares de memoria, lugares de silencio: la esclavitud atlántica en museos españoles y cubanos desde una perspectiva comparada internacional , p. 55.]

Brother, I am very very committed with this project and I hope you will not disappoint me. My purpose is to know if you could be in Cuba after June 1986 anytime from July to December. Tell me what month you prefer, what week, what days...… [See Henze's answer in letter of reply of 6 January 1986.] I hope this time it will work smoothly.

Everybody here is wanting you to come and the people from the National Opera theatre are willing to work in Cimarron under your direction. [Here, Barnet refers to the people who worked at the Gran Teatro de La Habana, which took this very name in 1985, at the initiative of Alicia Alonso.] Please, write to me about this issue and give me your schedule of 1986. As always I am anxious to talk to you and to see you. This time (3) things are different. Now I have come to the point where my voice and opinions are taken in consideration and my biggest wish is to see you and Fausto again strolling around the green and warm streets of Havana. [Henze and Fausto did not come back to Cuba, see Henze's answer in his letter of reply.]

I remember that when you left the airport in 1969 or 1970 [Henze left Cuba for the last time in January 1970.] you told me that Cuba for you was liberation. That shows in Cimarrón and in the rest of your work.

The moment has come when you have to see us ageing in this crazy but fabulous country that will always be grateful to your love and your talent.

Please, let me hear from you as soon as possible and don’t forget that to me it was always very difficult and sad not to be able to write to you in such positive terms. Call me if you want. my telephone is 36227.

A big hug and all my regards to Fausto.
Yours Miguel Barnet