Auden, Wystan Hugh: Brief an Henze, Hans Werner. Berlin-Dahlem, Montag, 23. November 1964
author: Auden, Wystan Hugh
language: en
availability: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Copyright by the Estate of W. H. Auden. By courtesy of the Estate of W. H. Auden. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Nov 23rd. 1964

Berlin-Dahlem
Hubertusbader Strasse 43

Dearest Hans,

Many thanks for your letter and also for the Essays which came from Schott and I intend to read as soon as possible.

[Auden proceeds to give the correct pronunciation and accentuation of the names of the characters of The Bassarids, as well as the mountain on which some of the action takes place.] E nglish Title The Bassarids

Cadmus	Kăd / mus	(ă as in hat)
Pentheus	Pen / theus	(th as in thin)
Dionysus	Di / ony / sus	( secondaccent slightly stronger than first y, as in smile
Agave	Aga / ve	(a / ve rhymes with German K´W)
Autonoe	Or / to nō /ĕ	(noe as roe rhyme with Chloe. 2nd accent in Autonoe the stronger.) [The brackets indicate that the accents refer to both 'Autonoe' and 'Beroe'.]
Beroe	Bero / e	
Bacchus	Băkkus	(ă as in hăt)
Venus	Vee/nús	[In this case no explanation of the accent.]
Proserpine	Prŏs / er / pīne	(ŏ as in hot. ī as in smile)
Semele	Sem / elĕ	(– – ˘)
Cithaeron	Kithair/on	" [This symbol means that the same as above applies, i.e. (- - ˘).]

Rumor reaches me that you may be coming to Berlin at the beginning of Dec. I do hope this is true.[^1]

[^1: Henze actually went to Berlin in the winter of 1964-1965, on a Ford Foundation grant that Ingeborg Bachmann also won that same year. Henze writes in his Autobiography, pp. 190-191, that quite coincidentally the three found themselves living for a time in the Grunewald, in Berlin.]

love
Wystan