Letter from C. Kallman to H. W. Henze, October 10, 1960

[Typescript]

Kirchstetten
Oct 10 60 ‡
Dear wicked scissor-man,*

First of all, congratulations on the first act. Hoch! *And now on to considerations
of the other two as we have them. I don’t know who did the typing, which has
lots of easily findable and easily correctable misprints, but no sense of where
verse lines should start on a page.* Wystan always says I’m unnecessarily finicky
on the point.* Still, I typed all three acts and gave myself a lot of trouble
keeping the alignments clear. Now they’re all over the place and I can’t see how
to set them right without cluttering up the pages with probably incomprehensible
markings or re-typing the whole damned thing. Which I shall ceratxxxxx ‡ cartainly[sic] ‡ not
do. Is it possible for someone to make these changes by consulting the original
typed copi e ‡s and markings this copy in a way that the printers will understand?
Do find out. At any rate I’m not "in the know" about German proof-reading symbols
of the more complicated sort. Verbal corrections and insertions, yes. Line
arrangements, no.

The synopsis will of course have to be slightly revised since the story itself has
undergone a few changes since it was written.* I’ll do that this week. About
the "Genesis" piece, though. Do you really think it belongs in the librettino
at all? ‡x x ich meine nein. ‡It might do in one of those explanatory booklets with themes and photos
of all three of us being served tea by Stravinsky while Bob Craft masturbates
in the foreground, but does it belong with the text itself? Or it might get i t ‡self
published in some musical magazine and earn a few dollars, j’espere , for its
author on the side. If you really think the librettino must have it, though, then
it should come as an after-piece. Placed before the text, it will make people
look for things in the text it mentions, and thus get an unbalanced impression
from their reading. What do you think?*

I shall also write and send you this week a short insert for Act Two to replace the
original scene between Mittenhofer and Mauer that has now been cut.* I think this
is necessary for three reasons. One: Mauer entering with Hilda is not enough
to justify his appearance on stage in the second act.* Two; He comes with
weather reports in the first and third acts (and thus as a messenger of the gods)
and should have the same function in the second. Wystan had the brilliant idea
that his report in the second act should be wrong..[sic] ‡ that is, he should tell
Mittenhofer that he expects the weather the next day; and Mitty says, Never mind, I’ve
made other arrangements. This exchange is what leads Mauer to make his closing
remarks in Act Three about the weather "madly happening". In other words, the
wanton fatefulness of the blizzard will be further underlined. See? The
messenger of the gods, only human, has got the message incorrectly. I think this
both important dramatically and ‡ in the matter of the three acts balancing one
another. And effective. Mittenhofer’s outburst will be even more of a shadow
and shock after the prediction of fine weather.* Three: Given the musical build
up in the second act right up to the Tomorrow ensemble*, a little rest from music
during this brief (probably three or four lines) dialogue, will freshen the
public’s ears to receive the full force of Mittenhofer’s tirade. Given the
intesityxxxxxxxx ‡ intensity of style with which you seem thus far to be composing the
work, this brief rest before the climax appears to me very essential.*

Alvetern . No, dear, we don’t think it will do. The "symbol" has [to] be simple
and immediately comprehensible if it is to mean anything at all to the audience.
Edelweiss‡ Its ‡ very time-worn and tired echoes from the dreariest German folk-lore[sic] ‡ will make
the differ e ‡nces of its usage her [sic] ‡more comprehensible.* Do try to forgetaboutxxxxxxxxxxx ‡
forget about Hitler. That objection is as silly in its way as the Schott objection
that German’ ‡s‡ don’t behave that way on mountains.* It’s the other side of the same
coin. Think of the edel-weiss[sic] ‡ in context, not as an abstract intruder into it.
Also, it wrecks the versification of one of the lines to change the work, and
makes nonsense of Hilda’s 'flowers holy-white' *. But all this would be minor if
it were not that the plant is too fucking obscure. Re-read the sections in which
the substitutions occur and you will see they now communicate nothing at all.

2

People, if they get anything at all, will think it a reference to a Danish
composer. If the subtleties in our work are to be apprehended in any way, we
mustn’t make the approaches to them dark. Please think seriously about this.

We notice cuts, my dear, that we haven’t made. The one at the end is easily
mended. We should simply like part of it restored, adding simply "simply"xxxxxx ‡ 'A very
brave and beautiful couple, "in death they were not devided[sic] ‡."' to the
text as it now stands. That removes any objection you might have to the request
for silence,* but keep s ‡ the sententious inaccuracy which is very imposx ‡rtant
dramatically. but. Cutting Elisabeth’s bit about "Bed and board" is perhaps
a serious mistake.* Remember she’s furious; Carolina has spoken to her as
though she were simply a convenient "Loch" in the menage and not a person. So she takes
it out in being a bit brutal herself. The very frankness of her remarks, too,
show a lack of pude u ‡r which is part of her strength. And that they shock Toni
slightly is important. Already apprehensive after his talk with papa, her words
make him even more cautious in the ensuing scene. You’re wrong if you think her
out of character there; and the "bed and board" bit,is the backgxxxxxxxxxxxx ‡ and Toni’s
reaction to it, are what are in the back of her mind when she asks Hilda later
'Do you think I’m a whore?' This second remark without the other is obscure
and more shocking than it is supposed to be. Reconsider, my sweet.*

Frankly, I don’t remember if I consented to the cutting of the last three lines
of the "Tomorrow" ensemble. If I did, I was wrong. Without them the ensemble
lacks a click of rhymes and meaning to bring it to an end; and ending on the
word "tomorrow" ,[sic] ‡ which the ensemble begins with, is surely more effecti v ‡e than
the present ending. Also, the tossing around of the lines between all the
characters should surely not be lost. I leave the decision in our hands.

Oh yes. We see it’s still "Huff-and-puff" etc.* Is this a slip? I thought we’d
agreed that keeping the real names 1) gave the point to his remarks about them; and
2) placed Mittenhofer among his distinguished contemporaries without any
ambiguity. Yes?* And is there no chance of restoring "Let those birds drop their
turds" ?x ‡ A good laugh never hurt any opera. Let us know.*

About printing the spoken parts in a different way in the librettino. I don’t
really think it’s necessary or desirable. On a small page, different kinds of
print look fussy and are distracting to the reader. Also, I always think that
an element of surprise should be added by not indicating divisions to the
reader that will be revealed to him when he hears the work.* Brackets indicating
ensembles, however, should be included; if only i ‡n the simplest way.* The
dedication we’ll do this week. It has been part of our idea to include
Huff-and-puff’s daughter in our share of the dedication, but since you don&t[sic] ‡
know her, this must probably be eschewed. A tw partxxxxxxx ‡ two-part dedication is
proxxx ‡ a little untidy, in any case.*
[Figure]
Now a little p e ‡sonal[sic] ‡ narration.

‡We had a brief visit last month from your "pupil"Mr. Michael Dress.* All very
peculiar. True, you had warned us that he was prone to exagerate;[sic] ‡ but it might
have been argued that his claiming to be your pupil could be explained, if not
excused, by the quite understandable toxx ‡ wish to gain some attention for himself
as an "artist". The fact that his claim was silly, and so easily exposable, made
it almost naive enough to excuse. Almost. But that’s just the beginning of our
story. His visiting us was supposed to be incidental to his visiting Vienna,
where he’d never been. Anyway, he arrived here late on a Wednesday evening from
Munich. The next day he popped in to Vienna in mid-afternoon; part of his object
to try to hear Price in Aida; and was to come back by the last train. Wystan, of
course, would have been in bed by then; but we had guests from Vienna that
evening (my new Schatz and two friends) ‡, so it was a simple matter
for them to pop d o ‡wn to the station at one a.m. and get him. They did.
They found him wandering about in the vague vicinity of the station. He said he’d
auto-stepped back from Vienna, and it had taken him five hours !!!! Now, there’s
a perfectly good train at Eight. Why did he auto-stop at Seven? If the story is ‡
true, it’s dippy enough. Anyway. When he got back to the house, he began babbling
on about having found out that a chanson he’d written for some Viennese singer had
been awarded a prize by the Rundfunk. No amount of questionex ‡ing on the boys’ part
brought anything in the way of a title for this prize-winning chanson, however,
which would seem to me to be essential if you tell such a story. Doubtless, he
was trying to impress them, or at least one of them--he told me later that he
had conceived an overwhelming passion for my friend--still, he might have made
a better job of it. And was it really necessary to tell them--when I was out of
the room--that, though many people considered Auden the Master, he thought
the Master was Ezra Pound? A lot that means to them! The next day he began running
about in circles and rushing down to telephone Vienna about the new restrictions
on train travel through East Germany. And no amount of assurance on our part
that millions of people flew to West Berlin all the time, had any effect on him.
One can understand him being slightly apprehensive about the restrictions, but
surely it was a little late in the day for a West-Berliner, who’d been through
one blockade, to panic and insist that he’d have to return at once. Taken by itself
it might have been visiting Vienna, my dear: the next day--Saturday--he left
at eleven at night to catch a train to Munich, from whence he was to fly back
to Berlin. So. Four weeks have passed since then; and we have 1) had no
thank-you note; 2) no letter containing the one-thousand-five-hundred-schillings
he borrowed from Wystan for his plain[sic] ‡ ticket. And the day after he left we
discovered that both our Kugelschreiber (Parker) were missing; and the "Chinese"
cuff-links I bought in Hamburg (they had been in the room he slept in) were also
gone. A Marlene Dietrich record is also among the missing, but there’s just the
possibility that that[sic] ‡ may have gotten buried under some papers. And that is that.
P e ‡rhaps Dahlem ought to be alerted. Oh well, leave it at that. But if you ever
see him at an Akademie reception, you might just look to see what cuff links he’s
wearing; I was very fond of those.

I taped a performance of Homburg the other night, but haven’t had a chance to
really re-hear it yet. With Herman[sic] ‡ Prey, this one was.* What I heard I enjoyed
extremely. I was extremely tired though and slept through half while it was
being recorded. Tonight perhaps. Missed a bit of the Second Act Natalie,
Kurfurnstin[sic] ‡ scene* turning over the damned tape which had gotten twisted. Shame.
Maybe you can provide me with the missing bit next year.

According to the Vienese[sic] ‡ press, Loose and Schoeffler have been hired by
Glyndebourne for Elegy. Would that be for Hildy and Hinty? And what month is
the premiere there planned for?*

Incidentally, we asked all sort of people here about Alvetern before we came
to our d e ‡cision that it was woefully obscure.*

Aside from a wisdom tooth that blew up on me and had to be removed, and an
infected jaw after the extraction, I’ve been alright and so has Miss Master.
We fly to England the 22nd of this month, and back to USthe 2nd of November.
Thursday I’m going to do my duty by la musica moderna by attending the
Vienna premiere of Moses and AAron[sic] ‡ (done by the Berlin Opera [)].* Wystan’s staying
home. And I’m feeling very proud of myself about a little musical point:
I’d always maintained that the "chatter" sections in "Rosenkavalier" should be
played, performed and listened to as recitative and not as durchkomp‡oniiert[sic] ‡
of Strauss’ to Hofmannstahl[sic] ‡ : "Die Arie ist nun einmal die Seele der Oper!....
Geschlossene Nummern, dazwischen Rezitative! Das war, ist und bl ei ‡bt die Oper!" *
Show that to Mr. Scherchen or whatever his name is.*

Let’s hear from you soon. Regards to all, especially JUergen[sic] ‡ * . We’ll do our extra bits. Love. Chester

Letter from C. Kallman to H. W. Henze, October 10, 1960

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