Kallman, Chester: Brief an Henze, Hans Werner. Kirchstetten (Westbahn), Dienstag, 25. August 1964
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/)

25 Aug 64 answered 5 September
Casta Divisa,[^1]

[^1: This is a pun on Casta diva and/or Casta Divisa. Here, Kallman is probably referring to the aria Casta Diva from the opera Norma by Vincenzo Bellini. In Italian, the word casta means caste, in its feminine form. The word divisa has several meanings: it can mean a type of distinctive uniform for a particular role, such as the military uniform, or in an archaic, figurative sense it can mean appearance, semblance.]

By now you will have gotten Wystan's letter and the mutilated body [The expression mutilated body refers to the many cuts of the libretto of The Bassarids that Henze had obtained thus far from the two librettists.] of our beloved Beckheimer [It is not known in what sense the word Beckheimer relates to The Bassarids. Perhaps, it is a play on words between Becky (The Bassarids nickname) and Beckheimer, which could be a German surname.], so there's no point discussing that for the moment. Other things then, The Cantata zum Beispiel[^2] Well, ducky, the text, now three-quarters done, simply would not do for a small choir, it wouldn't remotely make sense in those terms. Without sending the text, which I'll do in any case when it's finished, this is hard to explain, so you'll have to take my high fucking word for it. But I should adore dreaming up a text for your Köln [The two umlaut dots above the o were added in blue pen by Kallman.] thing [What Kallman is referring to with the Köln thing is unclear.] if you would give me some idea of the length, the sort of mood, subject and/or contrasts of mood and subject you would like. That would set me going. Perhaps in honour of the forthcoming (it would be in retrospect of course) Greek Royal Wedding, with outer sections on Copenhagen and Athens (the joys of) and an inner so to speak movement in praise of the Greek Royal Guard.[^3] Yum. We could call it, to suggest that it's sort of a toast to wedded bliss: up yours. In any case.

[^2: Kallman is referring here to the four poem cycle he had proposed to Henze to set to music, but which the composer later failed to realise due to a lack of time. See this letter by Kallman to Henze and Henze's Autobiography, pp. 171-172.]

[^3: Kallman alludes here to the marriage of Constantine II, King of the Hellenes, and Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, which took place on 18 September 1964, in Athens. The cities of Athens and Copenhagen mentioned here would thus like to be a tribute to the hometowns of the two newlyweds. Kallman was particularly connected to Greek royal affairs as his lover at the time, Kosta, worked as a member of the Royal Greek Guard.]

I've already heard from and answered Rena t e, who seems, if not all well, at least better. [Renate Praetorius was ill, as revealed in the previous letters.] She enclosed an ad from the Munich press looking for P hotomodels, but one has to give a Munich phone number and be there to await work. [Kallman had asked Henze and his secretary Renate Praetorius for help in finding work in Munich as a model for his Greek lover Kosta. See Kallman's letter on 27 July 1964.] So that will have to wait. Have you, by the way, completely given up your flat in Munich, or is it available to a respectable Helleno-American couple for sub-let?[^4] As far as Mr. Nickstadt is concerned, silence like the grave. I hope he hasn't hot-pawed the colors off. Yes, and I don't quite follow all your references to Mister K. Savides and his Taverna: you say she would be gelosa --but I don't understand of what and whom. Were my Adored One to work as a, say, bartender there (and he can speak German, and is , shall we say, presentable) Mr. Savides should surely be aware that a certain Italian-speaking languid American Fairy would put a knife between her greasy ribs if she touched him. Anyways, Kostas keeps saying he never wants to see another Greek again once he leaves Greece, but that's just what he says. Well, we'll see. Hans , he's such an angelllllllllll……

[^4: Immediately prior to his move to Italy in May 1953, Henze lived in Munich in a rented apartment belonging to Mrs. Pröschl on Jakob-Klar-Straße (see Autobiographie, p. 105). It is very likely that Henze had yet to rent a house in Munich at the time of this letter.]

Another thing in your letter puzzles me, you say it was being typed by a very cute Mr. Smith who is Hilda Mack the second.[^5] I am intrigued at this startling change in your tastes; Is Mr. Smith really over seventy and dressed in the drags of yesteryear? Are you perhaps taking melodies down that her dead husband, a very large mountain climber, dictates to her from some forgotten grave in the Castelli Romani? Do explain, darling, before I write all my friends about what I picture as a rather strange household.

[^5: Charles Harvey Smith was Henze’s secretary during this period. In a still-to-be located letter, Henze compared him to Hilda Mack, a character from Elegy for Young Lovers . Kallman thus imagines Smith as a crazy widow in her sixties who has been waiting forty years for her husband to return after disappearing during an Alpine climb. Her visions stimulate the creativity of the work’s main character, the poet Mittenhofer.]

Too awful about Folker, but if it brings you together sooner that, at least, is something. [Henze's partner Folker Bohnet was on a tournée for a long time. See Henze's letter to Kallman on 6 August 1964. Something probably happened, which would have led to Folker’s early return.]

It would seem that the Greek Poost office has gone stark raving mad, or that someone light-fingered is intervening, because my Darling hasn't received my last three letters and is convinced I'm cross with him and floods me with letters asking why (the last letter he did get from me did have a passage in it that was a bit of a reprimand about something he'd done) and begging me to forget about such things. Dear, dear. I'm so afraid that even my explanations, including a long telegram, are also disappearing into the void. And the p oo r duck is nervous and ans w ers his officers back and is always being confined to barracks. I hope this doesn't mean a delay in his release. Maybe I'll have to ask Enrichetta [Enrichetta's identity is not ascertained. Perhaps he could refer to his friend Enrico.] to drop a hint in that other Kosta's ear. I'll be back in the Athens of Greece the 15th of Sept. Three weeks more. (Orchestra up. Curtain.)

πολη [Kallman misspells a grave accent on the eta (η), using a grave accent (`), that actually doesn't exist on this alphabet letter.] αγάπη –– [The correct form in Greek should be πολύ αγάπη.] τσεστερ [Kallman signs his name Chester with the Greek letters, in which the initial sound ch is rendered with the letters ts.]

Much love from us both Penelope (in Stitches) [Reference to Penelope from Homer's Odyssey, waiting for Odysseus for ten years, stretching the web.]