Auden, Wystan Hugh: Brief an Henze, Hans Werner. Kirchstetten (Westbahn), Donnerstag, 14. Juli 1966
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/)

Kirchstetten (Westbahn)
Hinterholz # 6
Niederösterreich

July 14th. 1966 [The date is confirmed by references to the premiere of The Bassarids, which was to take place on 6 August 1966 in Salzburg.]

Dearest Hans:

Many thanks for your letter [The letter to which Auden refers here was not found among those kept at the Paul Sacher Foundation.]. I’m sorry that you and Chester seem to have been the victims of a gossip-writer. I can assume that I and, I am sure, Chester, too , will behave with the utmost circumspection. [An as-yet unidentified gossip may have commented on Henze’s and Kallman’s homosexuality. See also the second P.S. below.]

On one point, I must take issue with you – that of wearing or not wearing tails.[^1] I don’t think conventions have changed that much since I was a young man. I was taught that tails were the correct wear for two occasions:

- 1) A big ball
- 2) for male artistes of any kind who have to take a bow from the stage.

[^1: The three authors of The Bassarids discuss how to dress for the premiere of their opera in Salzburg on 6 August 1966. Auden's idea was to dress in tails, as did the opera's main character Dionysus in one of his stage appearances. See Auden's previous letter to Henze on 29 August 1964 and his subsequent letter to Henze on 15 July 1966.]

As you know, I hate spending a penny on clothes but I have just spent 5000 Austrian Schillings on a new Frack. Of course, we will do as you wish in this matter, but I think you are mistaken. You cannot, I'm sure, believe that tails cause raised eyebrows. [Henze probably disagreed and raised some concerns about wearing tails.]

As for the Easter Mysterium, it is difficult for us to have ideas till we can talk to you.

I am a little alarmed at the idea of getting a choir of schoolchildren to perform anything.

Their dancing capacities are very limited. There is also the question of theme. Easter as such is a Christian Feast which Jews and pagans cannot be expected to participate in. We might be able to do something along the lines of a Mummers' play about the resurrection of the New Year. [Here, Auden alludes to the idea of an opera for the school that was probably to become Moralities , for which Auden wrote the libretto from Aesop's fables in 1967.] But we will speak of that when we meet. [Auden's, Kallman's and Henze's next meeting was most likely in Salzburg on the occasion of the premiere of The Bassarids.]

much love
Wystan.

P.S. As you know, we arrive on the 25th at Hotel Swarzindien , am Mondsee.[^2] Tel. 416. Where are you staying?

[^2: Auden and Kallman preferred not to stay in the centre of Salzburg for the premiere of the opera The Bassarids on 6 August 1966, but on Lake Mondsee, an hour away from the city centre. See also Auden's letter on 10 October 1965.]

P.P.S. A queer reputation provides some people with a motive for malice and ill-will, but is something we all have to put up with. Vanessa failed, not because Sam Barber is que er , but because the work is no good.[^3] The most that the queerness did was to make some cuties hope it would be no good, and their hopes were rewarded. From what Chester tells me about the music of the Bassarids, you are going to disappoint the shits. [From this sentence it follows that Kallman had already been able to get an idea of Henze’s music for the work.]

[^3: The opera Vanessa had its European premiere on 16 August 1958 at the Salzburger Festspiele, with the original production of the world premiere, first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on 15 January 1958.]