THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Dorking,
Surrey.

13th May, 1953

Dear Arthur

I listened with extraordinary interest to the broadcast of your Opera. It will be a scandal if it is not now put on the stage.¹
I am glad to see that Ernest Newman gave it a good notice in the “Sunday Times”.²
Good luck to it.
Yrs
RVW

(R. Vaughan Williams).

Arthur Benjamin, Esq.

1. A tale of two cities (see VWL2354) had received three broadcast performances on the BBC Third Programme, on 17, 18 and 20 April. It eventually received a stage production by the New Opera Company at Sadlers Wells in July 1957 – see VWL3360 and R.V.W.: a biography, p.382.
2. Ernest Newman’s review, published in the Sunday Times on 26 April, was far from uncritical. However, he concluded:
“All in all, “A Tale of Two Cities” is an event of major importance in the development of modern British opera, the work of a composer with undeniably the root of the operatic matter in him. On the stage it should be tremendously impressive, and the sooner we are allowed to see and hear it there the better.”