Kallman, Chester: Brief an Henze, Hans Werner. Mittwoch, 13. Januar 1960
author: Kallman, Chester
language: en
availability: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Copyright by the Estate of Chester Kallman. By courtesy of the Estate of Chester Kallman. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Jan I3th 60 [Henze may have done the underlining himself.]
Bitte zurück

By now you've gotten all the copy[^1] and Wystan's notes, so I'll add a few of my own, starting with some of your questions in your letter. [This letter is not preserved at the Paul Sacher Foundation. The same letter is mentioned again below.]

[^1: Kallman is probably referring to copies of the libretto for Elegy for Young Lovers. A number of versions of the libretto with handwritten corrections are preserved at the Paul Sacher Foundation. It has yet to be ascertained whether the copy mentioned here can be identified among these materials.]

Wystan has explained chimes[^2]; it only remains to say that the other bells also act as scene changers on occasion, as does the train whistle, but the clock chime is always closely associated with Hinterhofer. [In the final libretto, the poet’s name is Gregor Mittenhofer (not Hinterhofer).] I suppose backstage is a good place to have an on-stage clock sound -- but where it is is up to you: from the orchestra is probably just as good.(maybe better, – since it's a formal not a naturalistic device).

[^2: Auden's explanation, to which Kallman alludes, cannot be found in the preserved letters. On Auden and Kallman's document dated 12 January 1960 responding to his queries, Henze wrote: What is the difference between tolls and chimes?, perhaps as a reminder to ask the librettists.]

In Act I, page 6, the entrance of Hinter and Lizzie [Kallman uses the name Lizzie here as a nickname for Elizabeth Zimmer.] is meant to be to music, a flourish and a recitative leading to Hulda's vision.[^3] The last spoken word there is Caroline's today.

[^3: The name of the widow in the final libretto is Hilda Mack, but in the course of the development of the libretto she is referred to as Hulda. This name is strongly reminiscent of that of the character Ulla from E.T.A. Hoffmann's short story Die Bergwerke zu Falun, from the story collection Die Serapionsbrüder, from which – as suggested by Peter Petersen in his lectures on Henze Hans Werner Henze. Ein politischer Musiker. Zwölf Vorlesungen , pp. 29-54 – (considering the similarity of the plot) the librettists most likely drew inspiration. Moreover, in Kallman's letter to Henze dated 31 August 1960, Kallman also referred to this character as Hedwig, however this name was then deleted and replaced with the name Hilda.]

Now I'll run through the script and try to indicate some of our musical ideas. [On the librettists' proposals for musical ideas, see the introduction to the Auden, Kallman and Henze correspondence.]

Act one:

Hulda's opening recitative is conceived as a free semi-lyric p ie ce somewhat in the manner of Lucia's Il dolce suono at the opening of her mad scene. [Here, Kallman is referring to the Mad Scene in Gaetano Donizzetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor (Act II, Scene 5).] Very beautiful and nostalgic, and here with an undertone of her delicious memories of losing her virginity, and a giddy antici pa tion of getting fucked again. Perhaps the recit. and the whole opera might be preluded by three chimes, rather like the three whacks of the cane that precede French Classical Dramas.

Her two lines about Each to his knitting are spoken.

Your treatment, formally, of the scherzo and trio is entirely your affair; but the important thing is the sense of bustle und fuss. The slower sections, such as Caroline and the Doc discussing her illness, should possibly play the same role that the trio (Not the trio mentioned above) plays in the scherzo of the classical symphonies.

page 6, from Car's Oh dear, what a morning until her Today is meant to be spoken.

Hulda 's stanza in her vision is an adaptation of Felice Romani's stanza in the mad scene of Anna Bolena[^4], and the music for it should perhaps suggest the nineteenth century operatic tradition, to which Hulda , with her time suspension of forty years, is presumably attached.

[^4: Kallman is referring to the aria Al dolce guidarmi from Act II, Scene 18, of Gaetano Donizzetti's opera Anna Bolena with a libretto by Felice Romani, in which the alternation of dactyls and jambi is taken up by the two librettists from the aria in Italian sung by Anna Bolena.]

The little sextet interlude, I hear as piano and staccato with Hulda floating above the ensemble. Maybe Hinty too. The sextet begins with Hint 's quiet, but the ensemble begins with Caroline 's Quiet--that is to say, Hint 's phrase is meant|to to lead into it, and his solo phrase Read me runes ends it, and introduces the middle section of Hulda 's vision. But I think that's all quite clear in the script. And Toni's exit line must naturally follow his father's [Toni’s father is Doctor Reischmann.] Won't you go? in the ensemble itself. (By the way, I hope you have this page, we found it was mislaid in our copy of the script.)

Hulda 's next bit--I gave her laurel is meant to be allegro, folk-songsy, Elizabethan. The Falala's can serve for vocalising on.

The last word of her scene snow was designed with a nice open vowel for a mad scene cadenza, if you wished to have it.

Naturally, vary the music in the reprise of Hinty's aria (the sections in between the stanzas are also meant to be su n g, semy-recit maybe, but that's your decision) for the stanza form is the same, the matter is quite varied.

page 9, Hint 's Get up until A nice way to start the morning [The ro has been corrected to or in pen.] are meant to be spoken.

The Doctor's two lines before the Lullaby are meant to be s p oken, but the last phrase* [It is not clear what this asterisk refers to.] How do you feel? might serve as a recit introduction to his Ninna-nanna.

[These two lines of text are shifted one letter to the left in comparison with the lines that come after them.]

After this, the whole scene down to Mauer 's Him--Mister Mack, the long-lost husband [The verse in the final libretto is Him – Mrs. Mack’s long-lost husband!] is meant to be spoken, Mauer against music, as befits his role throughout the opera as a messenger of the Fates. Caroline's remarks during the scene might be semi-recit, though, to give the sequence more variety, and to lead more naturally into the duettino that begins Who is to tell her? which is, after all, very secco and would have to almost verge on semi-recit, if its low emotional temperature is not to be violated. It should, however, be musically formalised, I imagine.

The next bit, from Mauer 's Tell Mister Hinterhofer down to Eliz 's You must listen is meant to be spoken, Mauer --come sempre* [It is not clear what this asterisk refers to.] to music. Though the last line before the duo beginning Forty years, that is the brief interchange between Hulda and Eliz could well be recit intro to the duo. Come vuoi.

The first part of the duet should mount in intensity up to Hulda 's semi-hysterical warning I beg you, flee, my child Hulda 's mood rises from cautioning Eliz to this, and the fear in her voice should get stronger and stronger. Eliz of course remains calm through all this, because she is trying to keep Hulda calm. The second half, the canon intrduced by Eliz must be as beautiful as Mira, O Norma [Here, Kallman is referring to the duet between Norma and Adalgisa Mira, O Norma from Bellini's and Romani's Norma, Act II, scene 1.]. The audience must weep with sympathy.

From Hulda 's How late it is to Hint's Eh, Toni is spoken.

The Cabaletta, Cavatina Finale we've already written about. [These annotations on the Cabaletta, Cavatina Finale cannot be located, probably because they were written on missing letters.]

Act two

In this act you have spoken bits typed in red, so I'll omit all references to them. None of these bits, however, Must * *,do its best be spoken (except for Mauer 's. As I've indicated in the notes on the first act, many of the dialogue sections especially just before a number) could well be recit. On the whole, though, since there is spoken dialogue, I do feel that recit should be kept to| [Kallman adds a dividing-line between to and an because the two words are written together.]an absolute minimum. I'll write more about this when I come to specific points in this act, especially bits which I gather from your letter, you conceive at present as being recit.

I don't think there's much to say about the first II [Here Kallman means 11.] pages, the action and emotional tone are quite obvious. Elizabth 's Recitative on page 6, though, you might want to make into a more lyric rage to lead into and contrast with the Scherzo, where the lighter emotional tone is necessarily set by Hinterhofer .

Elizabeth 's Arietta on page I2, I hear like a Hugo Wolf song, a concentrated tonal sound. You know what I mean--fabulous shifts of key suddenly throwing a word or phrase into poignant emphasis. How I go on!

If you find Toni 's Questa donna conoscete[^5] bit on page i4 too long, by the way, you can cut the five lines after afraid of him? and go from there straight to the final Tell them! Tell them!

[^5: This line was not published in the final version of the libretto. Nevertheless, Kallman took the verse from Act II, Scene 14 of Verdi and Piave's La Traviata. It cannot be ruled out that Kallman is referring to a precise moment in their libretto that Henze could understand with the reference to Verdi's opera.]

Now--and this is very important--Hinterhofer's stuff beginning One moment, Toni up to his Or remain the Muse (sufficiently cut, I hope) Must be very warm and lyrical, Hans Sachs at his most tender and human. [Here, Kallman refers to the main character of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Master-Singers of Nuremberg).] Not recitative. The old boy is putting on a terrific act of sympathy, he's displaying a great heart that he --as we know-- doesn't have; and its got to be a convincing act to those present and to the audience, otherwise the full monstrosity of his charachter, the real power he possesses to convince and manipulate, will not emerge. So. like I say, it must all be very warmly lyrical in this scene, round rich bass-baritone phrases: Was duftet doch der Flieder [Here, Kallman refers to Hans Sachs’ aria Was duftet doch der Flieder from the Act II of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Master-Singers of Nuremberg).] stuff. Everyone must think him such a wonderful generous old man.

All this hot choc o colate begins, naturally, after he's called them to order with his first line.

the following scene (after Eliz 's Leave me alone) you wanted shorter, leading to an agitated stretto. Well, some of Hinty 's material has been out--though admittedly not very much--but I must say I already had conceived as the quartetto following his remain the Muse as being just what you requested--a stretto. Toni begins it with his anguished cry of Elizabeth, no... and he becomes increasingly urgent and almost desperate by the close. His father's pleas with Elizabeth are also done with rising desperation. Hinty j oi ns the ensemble about the same time (maybe actually earlier than Doc ) and is calm and measured-- a good way, I thought, of both accenting the agitation of the other two men [The other two men are Doctor Wilhelm Reischmann and Toni, his son.], and providing a musical line to the bass [The bass is Doctor Wilhelm Reischmann.] (like Rigoletto provides to the flirtation giddiness in t hat Quartet [Here, Kallman alludes to the quartet Bella figlia dell'amore in Act III, No. 12 of Verdi's Rigoletto, in which Duca, Maddalena, Gilda and Rigoletto sing.]. And Caroline (the only woman's voice there)comes in last for the final dramatic comment, and (if you would) to contribute tellingly to the musical resolution. Lots of noise and agitation. or else Elizabeth's breakdown just before Hulda is heard, doesn't make sense. Anyway, I hope you'll see my point, especially since I'm certain that any spoken dialogue at this point will enormously detract from the effect of Hulda 's off stage interruption and her onstage appearance. (By the way, the last line of the stage direction preceding her first words, should read takes [Quotation mark only in opening, before takes, but not closed.] in the embarrassed etc. Not talks in)

Hulda 's scene. Giddy, of course. I also should like to point out that the first bit is done in an adaption of the Romani stanza used for her first act vision; the second part, beginning with Hinty's Then if Frau Mack will excuse us down to Hulda 's This time I get ten-percent or I sue, is done in the same rhythrhythm as her end of First act Cabaletta.[^6] To preserve this rhythm, if you wish to, there should be no pa u ses between one person speaking and the next person's reply. The third part of this scene (Beginning with Four of them singing at once -- Toni 's Elizabeth, I beg etc.--) is written in a version of the opening section o f the stanza used in the Elizabeth-Hulda duet in Act one. There Elizabeth helped Hulda , Here Hulda is trying to return the favor. Anyway, these three formal commentaries helped us point up in another way the contrast between the Hulda of this act with the Hulda of the first. You might possibly care to use musical means [The a has slipped downwards and is only half visible.] (var ia tions of some of her Act I music) to parallel the text's poetic artif i ces. Just a suggestion. (The third section of the above, by the way, ends with the little Quintet ending with Hinty's Yes, and for all time.)

[^6: The quoted verses by Hinterhofer (in the final libretto Mittenhofer) and Hulda (in the final libretto Hilda) are found in Act II, Scene IX (The Bride), while the quoted Cabaletta is found in the finale of the Act I, scene XII ( To-morrow: two follies cross). The rhythmic correspondence can be seen, for example, between the verse What a nice day it is! More are to come! (Act I, Scene XII) and This time I get ten percent or I sue! (Act II, scene IX), which are both decasyllables.]

Originally, the brief bit from Eliz's Doctor, I realize down to Hint's Admit your reasons were inept [In the final libretto were inept was replaced by are passé.] was in the same stanza form used by Hinty earlier in the scene. The cuts as a link with the earlier material on pages I5 & I6. Here though, the monster uses a lighter form of persuasion, he is trying to kid P a pa out of his objections, but the phony warmth should still underline his spurious lightness.

The Poem scene. This, of course, is not meant to be the poem itself, but his descripttion of it. Hinty, you will notice, does not refer to it as an Elegy although it is to be presumed he is writing it as such. For he knows , as we do, from Hulda's first act visions upon which the images and ideas of his poem have been based, that the lovers are sacrificed to the old gods. Yet, though he doesn't use the word, the music must be elegiac, it should state what he deliberately omits. The other people enter one by one echoing a phrase in Hinty's recitation. That, I think, is clear from the text. Caroline, though, will have no part of it; she is doing her best to maintain her own cracking discipline. Hulda, you notice, is wafted back momentarily to her old visionary madness by the phrase [The typewriter ribbon is very pale, and the letters hrase are faded:] The snow falls and is frightened into rejecting any memories of that period.--You are probably right about the combination of song and speech; so I think your idea of HIN TY's parlando is best. And Caroline's couplet at the end might be parlando too, bringing the sextet to a close and announcing the next bit. Anyway, organize the sextet as you will-- [The fourth page is written on the verso of the second page, upside down.] though the echoes obviously must be kept, and I also think that it must never rise above piano, an even seductive elegiac whisper, that only Caroline's stringent comment at the close, disturb. It is in this ensemble that the rest are lured into taking positions in spite of their own qualms about them. -- A poisonous lovely piano. The Doctor's blessing might take place in coda to the sextet and the chimes form part of the music here instead of merely ending it. Part of the music after the singing, naturally. It being in the music, would rather symbolize [From here on, the margin is indented one letter.] Caroline's words about their forgetting the hour. And in the body of the ensemble the Ah and O and even Elizabeth's s o could possibly be used to vocalize on for a bit, thus rendering other people's words more understandable for that bit. Just an idea.

From this point on I consider the act finale. Mauer 's weather report, Hinty 's rage and Hulda's re-entrance (more on that later) is merely a three part, three surprise, three shoc k coda. But let's go back To Toni's Thank you father for the time being. From the comparative emotional seriousness of the first few lines, I hear a music getting gradually lighter and fa st er. Hinty is being cute. Everything should trip along like Offenbach or J. Strauss building up towards a gay finale. So you see, not much time or weight is required. This goes up to Hinty's A symbol, shall we say [This line is not included in the final version of the libretto.] His request, still lightly made, but with a throb of sincerity in his tones, might perhaps be spoken to music. He is using there the alliterative line associated with the HAmmerhorn and Mauer. The back to singing with Remain here one more day. Then the terzetto (Only four short lines really) and then right back to the Offenbach-Strauss mood and pace of the earlier section, climaxing with Hulda's I decry it. Hinty's two lines, slackening the pace, are the introduction to the finale proper, rather like Riccardo's E tu mi porti l'abito d'un pescator introducing the first scene finale in ballo . [Kallman alludes to the line Riccardo sings to Oscar in Act I, Scene 5 of Giuseppe Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera. The correct quotation, however, is as follows: E tu m’appronta un abito da pescator.] And what follows here should also be like that finale, very gay, but with serious undertones done with color in|some [Kallman added a vertical slash to divide the two words, accidentally written without a space.] parts rather than with any slackening of pace. As you can see in the text, this tomorrow number [Here, Kallman alludes to Act II, Scene XII The Vision of to-morrow] builds up twice from solo voices to a tutti, builds up in two different ways and to two different climaxes, and all very briefly. If it's cut, this build-up will disappear and it will serve no function at all; and its dramatic-musical function is two-fold --to climax and to decei v e. As for the first: All the fore-going scene, with its revelations, arguments, persuasions, reconciliations and disposals, seems to me to demand a resolution; and the kind of nineteenth-century-mad-scene frame we have given the first act, would rather indicate a good nineteenth-century-ish finale for the sec o nd, if the work is not to become too stylistically disj oi nted -in spite of the variety of action we have, or perhaps even because of it. Well, we come to this finale. There are, of course, unreconciled elements in the drama--Caroline is sour, the Doctor is gloomy. But audiences like to forget the discordant elements, they'll want to bask in the conciliation and joy-in-tomorrow, even though the non-conciliated twice stop the finale from g ai ning its natural momentum: The Doctor breaks in first, spoke n , Hinty speaks back--then we're off again-- Then there's the spoken exchange between Caroline and the Master-- and then we really can whirl away. Even the chimes which herald these two interruptions, and should be grim reminders of the day's unmet duties and obligations, become, in the momentum, part of time sweeping on to that tomorrow they are all singing about (And which we know will mean disaster for many). It's all musically and dramatically natural, the audience reaches for its shoes, looks up for the curtain; the characters disperse. Then there's instead I) Tomorrow's weather report and Hinty's lie about the Edelweiss 2) Hinty's rage 3) Hulda : All surprises. And the i r full effect, I'm sure, can only be felt after a full-fledged, though brief, pseudo-finale. I hope you'll agree.

But then, you would like Hinty to bring the curtain down. I think this isa mistake for a number of reasons. I) Since the second act curtain went up on the same character that was on stage when the first act curtain fell, I should like this device repeated for the end-of-second-act, beginning of third-act-curtains (& remember that Toni and Elizabeth, though unseen, are presumably on the back terrace at the end of the second act). This gives the opera a visual flow which I feel intrinsic to our adaption of the Noh technique. [Presumably Kallman is referring to the fact that in Japanese Noh Theatre there is no curtain and the stage is open on three sides, so that a certain visual continuity is guaranteed.] It is only when we shift to the Hammerhorn that this continuity is stopped, and there Caroline even announces A cha ng e of scene. Also, the death scene is in the nature of a parenthesis: When it is over we come back to Hinty & Caroline. 2) Since Hinterhofer gets the final curtain of the opera, I thought it more effective to rob him of this one. In other words, the curtain is properly his when he has finished his Elegy [Here, Kallman means Hinterhofer (in the final libretto Mittenhofer)'s poem, from which the work also takes its title.] and disposed of everyone and ev erything to his satisfaction. 3) I really think that unclimaxed rage (putting the ink-pot down instead of throwing it) is somehow more sinister. For one thing, flung objects are always a bit comic on stage, and for another, when he does, so to speak, "fling the inkpot", is when he lies to Mauer in the Third Act. And there, the noise of breaking we are led to expect in|the [Kallman added a vertical slash to divide the two words, accidentally written without a space.] second act, has its horrifying echo in the dull thud of Caroline knocking an objet off the table. 3) [List number 3) appears twice, most likely by mistake.] His rage and lie will make the audience apprehensive enough; Hulda's interruption will both relieve their tension and pu z zle them. Maybe things will be alright [A curved line above the crossed out l links al to right.], they wonder, or--maybe not. 4) This ambiguous curtain joins together the two elements--Hinty's dishonesties and Hulda's mockeries--that have dominated the last half of the act. It is important to remember that they represent Elizabeth's two real choices for the future (Toni is an ignis fatuus [Expression used to indicate something (or in this case) someone deluding or misleading]): to adjust her life to the man she finds attractive, to accept his limitations as a man and therefor the limitations her life will have in sharing it with his, or to laugh at them all (as Hulda advised her) and leave at once to find a new life for herself. Well, she compr o mises with one more day, fate intervenes, and.......

Third Act . Not much to say about this, especially since we don't know your reactions yet, and what you may want changed. We hear it all ve r y|lyrical Suffice it, for the moment, to say that Hinty on pages 3 & 4, after the others go, is very tired and, under all his logic, st e wing in self-pity. His vanity is wounded, his poem unfinished. Then, when the chance comes, he strikes, throwing also the ultimate choice on Caroline's shoulders. After all, she could tell Mauer the truth. After Mauer goes, he's quite amaster of himself, even if his attempt to get rid of Caroline doesn't work, even if there is a veiled thre a t in her saying she won't let him forget|a thing. He can manage her. And the Caroline we see in the last scene is a broken woman, an alarm clock with no will of her own. Her mad scene before the change of scene, should make people shit in their pants with terror.

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Well, there's no news from here. We're both well and hope the same for you Stop catching colds, Much love from us both; and we hope to hear from you soon.

Chester

P.S. when all the revisions are made to your satisfaction, we'll do a final version of the script including the Titles and the descriptions of the characters. Pazienza!