Pièce 31 - Letter from Donald Tovey to R. C. Trevelyan

1 item: letter with envelope.

Northlands, Englefield Green, Surrey. - Has only just found a letter left behind by Trevelyan, which he sends on. Will try to get away early: the Oxford lecture is on the 4th and he will work on it now, so that he only needs to go up for the day or weekend at most. He will 'need to argue it out a bit': the difficulty is not that he does not have time for the work ["The Bride of Dionysus"] but that he has to make clear he cannot do it all by correspondence. Will wait until 1 June, when his rehearsals and concerts are almost over, to 'get obviously into the swing of the work... in a position to beat down opposition'. Would make matters worse at the moment, and does not know how to hint to Casals without suggesting either that he doesn't want to get on with him, or that Miss Weisse doesn't want him to get on with the opera. Understands Trevelyan's anxiety, but reassures him that he has had 'a good deal of revolutionizing going on with the music', which is a 'very complicated thing', over the last year. The opera is rarely out of his mind, 'even in the middle of [his] own concerts'. Does not know what would happen if Trevelyan were to give it up: would have to try and solve problems in the text himself, as certainly he would not give it up. Wishes he could fix dates now [to visit the Shiffolds] but will have to wait. On the envelope, which may not belong with this letter, there is a note telling Trevelyan not to alter 'Hail longed for sight' as it has 'ever so much the best music'.