THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

Leith Hill Place,
N^r. Dorking.
13 Cheyne Walk,
S.W.1.

[Summer, 1910]

Dear M^r Child,
I’ve at last read through your admirable scenario very thoroughly – it seems fine, it ought to turn unto something just right and very good.
I want to make one or two criticisms – but I fully realise that both literally and dramatically I am a complete ignoramus and you are not – nevertheless I will put them down for what they are worth – only remember my suggestions may be impossible and are not in any way final.  Well, first, generally: –
1.  I sh^d rather be more sympathetic with the English peasantry, the laugh all the way through is at the English people and with the Welshman.  Now what I want in the opera is that the English peasant shall not be looked on as a mere clown but a person capable of such beautiful song (and all that is implied by them) as we now know of – but this need not alter the general tenor of the plot.
2.  Dont’ think me captious – but I don’t quite like the names, – but that is a small point – only they suggest to me the stage village a little.
3.  W^d it perhaps be better to make the heroine a real village girl – and not quite the status of a mayor’s daughter, (cd. not the father be the village constable?)
4.  Do you think there are too many side issues – e.g. the 2 maids and their two lovers; the plot of an opera cannot be to simple – but this we shall see later.
5.  The period 1820 seems good, or even earlier – at all evens it ought to be the right period for Annis to have a very pretty pair of buckled shoes to kick off in Act II.
6.  Is the final climax quite strong enough?  I sh^d like it to end in more decisive triumph for the lovers – perhaps Blogg and his associates cd. have some further scheme or revenge ceonnected with their Maying expedition which finally turns to their own confusion?

I’m afraid I’ve not done yet – but I have some more detailed suggestions (please don’t accept any of them).
ACT I.  C^d the prize fight be made more the climax of the fair part of the business – the crowd might come on again (2^nd time) in response to a definite summons on the part of a showman to come to see a fight – he might already got hold of Blogg and persuaded him to ‘meet all comers’.  (By the way, the crowd might go off 1^st time following a procession of Morris Dancers (not dancing) but processing to their dancing place.)  I like the meeting of hero and heroine tremendously.  I think we cd. arrange the prize fight on c^d we not? – with a large crowd on chairs etc. to hide the fighters,  (By the way I send you now Zincali with the passage marked on page 18.)  Note in the Zincali – our next opera might be Lavengro – I’ve always had this in my mind but quite forgot to talk about it when we met.
In ACT II there are 3 lyric climaxes for the lovers – w^d it not be better to roll these into one – ending with the ‘Drovers marriage’ ceremony, then the gradual dawn and arrival of the lovers – but I don’t know.
– My keenness on yr scheme grows with every successive rereading – send me any bits as you do them so that I can start thinking about them.

By the way on Sept. 1^st1 Wood is doing a folk song fantasia of mine, the slow middle section of which is a sort of study for what I sh^d like my love scene, Act II, to be like.  Thank you so much: I begin to see daylight in operatic regions.

Yrs v. tr.
R Vaughan Williams

1.  1 September 1910.  Work which was scrapped – conducted by Henry Wood at a Promenade Concert.