Letter (with Enclosure) from W. H. Auden/C. Kallman to H. W. Henze, January 12, 1960

Writing styles

• 1.

  Typescript.
• 2.

  Handwriting, ball pen (pink).
• 3.

  Handwriting, Auden, Wystan Hugh, ball pen (blue).
• 4.

  Handwriting, pencil.
• 5.

  Handwriting, Henze, Hans Werner, pencil.

Text Constitution

• 1.

  Following: handwritten, ball pen (pink)
• 2.

  "Bitte zurück"crossed out, handwritten, pencil
• 3.

  "… Bitte zurück"It is not ascertainable who added this, then crossed it out in pencil. Perhaps one of the two authors of the letter wrote "BITTE ZURÜCK" so that Henze could return this letter to them. It can be assumed with some certainty that the crossing out in pencil was done by Henze later, because he made two other inscriptions on the second page using the same pencil, i.e. the date in the upper left and the question in the lower left.
• 4.

  Following: typescript
• 5.

  "anwers"deleted by overtyping
• 6.

  "some"deleted by overtyping
• 7.

  "s"crossed out
• 8.

  "Cinque Strunze"sic
• 9.

  Following: handwritten, ball pen (blue), Auden, Wystan Hugh
• 10.

  "… C"It is likely that the letter "C", for "Chester", was written by Kallman with the same blue pen used by Auden.
• 11.

  Following: typescript

Commentary

• 1.

  "… Jan 12,I960"There is about a year between Henze’s first letter of 6 January 1959 and this letter. This letter testifies to a rather advanced state in the compositional process of the opera Elegy for Young Lovers. Unfortunately, no letters have been found documenting the beginning of their collaboration for this opera.
• 2.

  Bitte zurück

  • Please get back
• 3.

  "… Herewith:"The material Auden and Kallman sent relates to the libretto of Elegy for Young Lovers, which is divided into three acts and includes a total of 34 scenes (in this letter they are also called "stanzas"). A number of versions of the libretto with handwritten corrections (as well as the opera’s synopsis) are preserved at the Paul Sacher Foundation. It has yet to be ascertained whether the libretto sent with this letter can also be identified among the archive’s materials.
• 4.

  [Latin] Dramatis Personae

  • Characters
• 5.

  "… Observations,prosodic and other,for the translator."Henze composed Elegy for Young Lovers on the basis of the original English libretto, however, the premiere on 20 May 1961 in Schwetzingen was in German. With the word "translator" Auden could be alluding to the translator of the libretto, Ludwig Landgraf, or to one of Henze’s collaborators for the translation, namely Werner Schachteli, Harold Byrns and Hans Magnus Enzensberger (see Henze’s Autobiography, pp. 166-167 and see Henze’s letters to Enzensberger on 5 October 1960 and on 2 November 1960).
• 6.

  "… anwers answers to your queries."Of the five attachments listed here, only this attachment No. 5 "Answers to Queries" was attached to this letter.
• 7.

  "… more in a few days"Kallman already sent a letter with further information the next day, 13 January 1960.
• 8.

  "… to write an operatic storm."The librettists are probably alluding to the storms in Act III of Verdi’s Rigoletto or in Act I of Verdi’s Otello and to the snowstorm in Act III, Scenes VI–VIII of their Elegy for Young Lovers.
• 9.

  "… Movements ,otherwise Cinque Strunze ." Movements for Piano and Orchestra is a work by Stravinsky, consisting of five short movements. The name "Cinque Strunze" probably refers to this division into five (in Italian "cinque") parts. Perhaps by the word "strunze" Auden means actually "stanze", in the sense of parts.
• 10.

  Baci

  • Kisses
• 11.

  et

  • and
• 12.

  Abracci

  • Hugs