THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

From R. Vaughan Williams,
10, Hanover Terrace,
Regents Park,
London, N.W.1.

March 6th 1955.

Dear Frank,
I am sorry Tucker does not like P.P.¹I still believe in it as a stage work, and I do not want it to become a tail-coat oratorio, till it has definitely been proved a failure on the stage. In that case I shall have no further interest in it and you can do what you like. Tucker sent me a scenario from the Return of the Native, but I don’t much want to write a tragedy.
I fear there is little hope of the JB² work being ready for Cheltenham.
Yrs RVW

1. Pilgrim’s Progress. Norman Tucker was head of Sadler’s Wells Opera at this time. Frank had written to VW to say that Tucker was ‘not too helpful, though he offers to reconsider it’. Tucker had also asked Frank to see if he could persuade VW to write a tragic opera.
2. For John Barbirolli?