Kallman, Chester: Brief an Henze, Hans Werner. Kirchstetten (Westbahn), undatiert
author: Kallman, Chester
language: en
availability: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Copyright by the Estate of Chester Kallman. By courtesy of the Estate of Chester Kallman. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Auden. 8 | 9 | 66 [This letter was originally not dated. The date added by Henze refers to the date he answered with another letter. Therefore, this letter must have been written shortly before 8 September 1966.]
Hänschenleinino,

Well, we've got sort of an idea maybe for les enfants de Cinncinnati . A suite consisting of dramatized Fables from Aesop.[^1] We've found a number of them that would require only a soloist and chorus and they seem to present good and varied musical possibilities, where the chorus could be Bees or Frogs or R a ts or People and the Soloist either Zeus or a Person or also an animal. A Speaker could also be used as a Frame and/or Link, and for variety. He could also alternate with the soloist in pointing the rather sharp Morals, but that's all just spec u lation now. Do you have an Aesop? We have one put out by Penguin: I'm sure it could be found in Rome. En tout cas, the Fables we thought promising are titled (in the Penguin): The Wages of Malice, Nature's Punishment of Discontent, How the Tortoise Got its Shell, We Get the Rulers We Deserve, On Is Enough, Pride Will Have A Fall, Second Thoughts, Cut Off Your Tails To Save My Face, Borrowed Plumes, Memento Mori, Villainy Unmasked, Swan Song [Henze probably underlined the three titles, communicating them to the two librettists in his letter written on the same day.], Business First, God Helps Those Who Help Themselves.[^2]

[^1: This idea became the basis for the school-opera Moralities, which was performed in May 1968 in Cincinnati. It should be noted that although Kallman proposed the basic idea of the work here, he was unable or unwilling to actively participate in the realisation of the work, whose libretto was solely written by Auden. See also Auden's subsequent letters of 5 January 1967 and 15 January 1967.]

[^2: Three Aesop fables were finally chosen for Moralities , whose titles in Auden and Henze's work are: I In the first age the frogs dwelt at peace; II When first had no second, before time was and III A ship put to sea.]

Not all of them naturally!

As of now, Wystan and I plan to arrive in Berlin on the 23rd, although it is possible, because of that TV thing[^3], that we have to come on the 19th, but we will have time to talk about the project.[^4] Especially if you answer this presto in the affirmative and also give us some musical hints about the kinds of noise and forms you envision for this opus. Off to the Book Store, girl! [Since Henze communicated his choice immediately to the two librettists, he may not have needed to go to the bookstore, but he probably already knew Aesop's fables.]

[^3: Here, Kallman is referring to the Lesebühne of Bakchae a few days before the performance in Berlin of The Bassarids and organised for the Drittes Programm by Ernst Schnabel. See Henze's letter to Auden of 19 April 1966.]

[^4: In Henze's previous letter of 27 August 1966, he expressed his concern that he had learned from Filippo Sunjust, the set designer of The Bassarids , that the two librettists would arrive in Berlin only two days before the premiere and that Henze would therefore not have time to talk to them about the Moralities project.]

The Reviews seem to have been quite enthusiastic on the whole. Which is nice. [It is likely that Kallman is referring to the reviews after the Salzburg premiere of The Bassarids , which took place on 6 August 1966, and was performed there again on 20 and 26 August.] Sometimes I wish you'd never made those polemical remarks about Opera--you know, about the stage being only the open eye of the score.[^5] (I agree with you, and know only too well the Rennertisms that drove you to saying it)[^6] And I also wish the Mythological and Religious Backgrounds had not been provided in the Programme.[^7] Almost all the attacks on us were made on the basis of these Statements and Notes: You know: It's not really an Opera because its a Symphony and Henze doesn't believe in stage action as drama or It can't be a good stage work because it requires explanation etc etc etc I guess they get annoyed. Poor sillies. A Mister Hans Lossmann in Die Buhne seems to be absolutely furious with Wystan and me, mainly because of the Backgrounds but also because of our tastelessness and all our eroticism. Nice to know that one can still shock some poor slob. I suspect no one fucked him at Salzburg, he also hated * * and, of all things Madame Hallstein [The soprano Ingeborg Hallstein performed the role of Autonoe in the premiere of The Bassarids in Salzburg.] the Figaro and the Carmen.

[^5: Here, Kallman refers to an expression Henze used in an interview with Alan Blyth in 1966, published in Henze's new opera , p. 608, in which Henze states: You might say that the stage is the open eye of the score. When I choose a plot for an opera, I don’t think about what it will be like as a show, but of certain musical ideas I want to express in a visual form - the music as it were overflowing into forms that are visual.]

[^6: Rennert was the director of Elegy for Young Lovers at Glyndebourne and, as is evident from the correspondence between Henze, Auden and Kallman, he gave numerous suggestions on both libretto and music to the three authors. However, Rennert was not officially included in the premiere production of The Bassarids , which was directed by Gustav Rudolf Sellner, with set design and costumes by Filippo Sanjust.]

[^7: Kallman alludes to the texts to be printed in the program notes of the German national premiere of The Bassarids in Berlin, which would take place on 28 September 1966 at the Deutsche Oper. As requested here by Kallman, the texts titled Der mythologische Hintergrund and Religiöse Einstellung der Personen were not printed in the program notes, a copy of which is preserved at the Paul Sacher Foundation. See also Henze's response in his reply letter.]

That's all for now.

Give Wolfgang a squeeze for me –

Love + Kisses from us both
C

P.S. Please try getting a tape of the Mamma, Mamma[^8] to use in Berlin[^9], - maybe two or three times in the trial scene, and once or twice near the end. And see what something more is made of the doll in the trial scene so that it means something at the end. Please!

[^8: 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. This sets the stage for a kind of mirroring of the dismemberment of the body of Pentheus, shortly before he is killed by his mother, Agave. Kallman proposes to play the tape here in this final scene. In his reply, Henze did not seem enthusiastic about using a recorded track.]

[^9: Here, Kallman is referring to the German national premiere of The Bassarids in Berlin, which would take place on 28 September 1966 at the Deutsche Oper. See Henze’s reply in his letter he sent that same day.]

P.S.S. Sparing of tapes, ones of the Bassarids is a mess, bec ause the person who taped it for us used an old Tape and the background didn’t always erase. Behind Kerstin in the head scene [Here, Kallman alludes to the final scene in which Agave, played by Kerstin Meyer, holds the head of her son Pentheus, whom she killed.], we have Wien, Wien, nur du allein? Talk about Alienation! I hope you have a good tape we can have copied. [See Henze’s reply in his letter he sent that same day.]

P.P.P.S: Wystan wants the German word for: to cruise. He needs it for some innocent translation of his. Please send, eh'! [Henze replied to Auden’s question in the letter he sent on the same day.]