Henze, Hans Werner: Brief an Kallman, Chester/Auden, Wystan Hugh. Castelgandolfo (Roma), Donnerstag, 8. September 1966
author: Henze, Hans Werner
language: en
availability: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Mit freundlicher Genehmigung der Hans Werner Henze-Stiftung (Dr. Michael Kerstan). (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Prof. Hans Werner Henze

Castelgandolfo (Roma)
Via dei Laghi, 18

8. September 1966

Mr.
Chester Kallman
Hinterholz 6
Kirchstetten (Westbahn)

Chestnut !

Received le t ter and cabled [This telegram has yet to be located.] back as you saw. [The letter sent by Kallman apparently arrived within the day, as Henze was able to reply to his librettists immediately.] I would like three of Aesop, each about 10 or 12 minutes duration [The planned duration of Moralities, divided into three parts, is 23 minutes.], especially:

- Nature's Punishment of Discontent
- Villainy Unmasked
- Swan Song.[^1]

Alas, dear Wystan, there is no adequate translation for to cruise, we only have auf den Strich gehen (some people say strichen, but it really means the activity of a Strichjunge ) .[^2]

[^1: Henze refers here to the three Aesop fables chosen as the basis for the libretto of Moralities . In Kallman's previous letter, in the list of titles of Aesop’s fables to possibly be set to music, these three titles are underlined, probably by Henze himself (as if he wanted to mark his choice).]

[^2: In a postscript in the previous letter, Kallman had asked Henze for the German translation of to cruise, which Auden needed for a translation of his own. The meaning Henze refers to in his German translation is not going on a cruise but prostituting.]

To console you I tell you another Aesop : the fox and the rabbit were great friends, and uses to play cards twice a week. One night it had become so late that the fox lost the last bus home and the rabbit offered to carry him home. He said: Setz dich auf meinen Schwanz und halte dich gut fest, du wirst sehen, in einer Viertelstunde sind wir zu Hause. Dann aber stellte sich heraus, dass der Fuchs immer wieder vom Schwanz des Karnickels, der ja sehr kurz ist, abrutschte, so dass der Transport schwierig, ja, unmoeglich war. Da gab der Fuchs es auf und schimpfte sehr, war boese und kuendigte dem Karnickel die Freundschaft. Moral: Wer einen kleinen Schwanz hat, muss mindestens einen Chevrolet in der Garage haben! [This fable is, of course, not by Aesop. Henze seems to have invented it. The choice of characters probably refers to Der Hase und der Fuchs .]

Sellner in a long letter has promised to do all the improvements and especially the ending will be provided with the necessary effects.[^3] Also the child with the doll will be much more in evidence during the various possible moments. To use a Mamma-Mamma- tape is very dangerous because it might not work or just start the wrong moment and so on Tapes are tricky and horrible anyway.[^4] Some of the press, especially the German and Austrian were very silly indeed, I was even rather depressed for a while but of course did not show these feelings. I will see to it that the mythological and religious background will not appear in the programm in Berlin.[^5]

[^3: Gustav Rudolf Sellner was the director of the premiere of The Bassarids in Salzburg. Apparently, after the premiere, the three authors suggested some improvements to him to be considered in subsequent performances, first of all in Berlin.]

[^4: There is an indication in the score of The Bassarids , p. 670, just before the end, about a little girl, the daughter of a slave girl, breaking her doll and jumping merrily. In his previous letter, Kallman had proposed using a tape with a track in which the little girl says, Mamma, mamma.]

[^5: In his previous letter Kallman had written that most of the criticism directed at the librettists after the premiere was made on the basis of the Statements and Notes printed in the programme booklets. Here, Henze is referring to the program notes of the German national premiere of The Bassarids in Berlin, which took place on 28 September 1966 at the Deutsche Oper. The programme booklet of this second production, which is kept at the Paul Sacher Foundation, does not include the texts Der mythologische Hintergrund and Religiöse Einstellung der Personen.]

Somebody taped Becky's Italian broadcast but on a machine that does not fit on mine. All the same: it is broadcasted so often [Apparently the performance of the opera was broadcast not only in Italy, but probably also in Austria.] that I'm sure we will get a tape for our private use. [Here, Henze responded to Kallman's request in his letter for a good recording of the premiere of The Bassarids in Salzburg.]