THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

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

May 22nd [1958]

Dearest Michael & Eslyn

Lovely letters – one about the Partita came in from Ischia.¹  We had a day in Naples & went to Amalfi, & saw the Siren islands, mysterious on the silky sea, under huge cliffs.
Its also lovely to be home, the may all out, & the trees ravishingly green.  Don Carlos, and Tristan² & the Cherry Orchard³ coming along & we’ve had a singery,⁴  & the house is all clean & fresh.
So all is fine, & Ralph splendid, & the opera cracking along.⁵
We think of you both so much, & send our fond love.
U.

1.  The European premiere of Walton’s Partita was given by its composer and the Halle orchestra in Manchester on 30 April (and 1 May). Kennedy wrote enthusiastically about it in the Daily Telegraph. Walton returned to Ischia (where the Manchester Evening News reported that he’d be rubbing shoulders with VW) in the first week of May, although UVW makes no mention of this.
2. Verdi’s Don Carlos was conducted at Covent Garden in Italian by Giulini in a run concluding on 28 May. Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, conducted by Kubelik, opened at Covent Garden on 4 June; VW and UVW saw it on 9 June.
3.  The Moscow Arts Theatre production of Chekhov’s play The Cherry Orchard opened at Sadler’s Wells early in May.
4.  The VWs had people in regularly to sing madrigals at 10 Hanover Terrace and called these evenings ‘singeries’.
5.  The unfinished opera Thomas the Rhymer.