THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

13 Cheyne Walk
S.W.

[1911]

Dear Dent

Thank you very much for causing to be sent to me your Magic Flute essay.¹ I was tremendously interested – the religious idea I am coming to think is the only possible one – its a pity that our English Religion is a vested interest. – I’ve also begun your Scarlatti book² – I can’t think why I have never read it before. I believe I thought I sh^d not be interested in Scarlatti (and I’m not) – but I ought to have known that there w^d be ‘obiter dicta’ abounding which w^d make the book worth reading even if one hated Scarlatti.
Yrs

R. Vaughan Williams

1. The first English language performance of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute was produced in Camrbudge in 1911. Dent made the translation and wrote an accompanying essay Mozart’s Opera ‘The Magic Flute: its history and interpretation (Cambridge, 1911).
2. Alessandro Scarlatti, London, 1905.dent