THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

From R. Vaughan Williams,
The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.

[April 1937]

Dear Gordon

Herewith 2 copies of the ‘patch’ (p.184) – remember that 2 bars are cut on p.183 – One more suggested cut act II letter Yy:  make the cut suggested & let Hugh merely say “What say you Mary” – If we cut much more there will be no opera left.¹
Yrs

R Vaughan Williams

1.  Sadler’s Wells was putting on a revival of VW’s opera Hugh the Drover (Catalogue of Works 1924/2) in May as part of the Coronation festivities for George VI – see Works of Vaughan Williams p.256. Jack Gordon was the producer. Howard Ferguson planned to go on 1 May – see Letters of Gerald Finzi and Howard Ferguson, edited by Howard Ferguson and Michael Hurd (Woodbridge 2001), p.149.