Item 8 - Letter from Donald Tovey to R. C. Trevelyan

Ridgehurst, Shenley, Herts. - He 'and various musical people here' [the Speyers' house] agree that no singer could sustain Ariadne's scene in the third act as currently written; suggests a means in which a rest from her singing and maintaining the audience's interest could be introduced by getting her off-stage and bringing on the Satyrs again. If Trevelyan cannot write this to his own satisfaction, the opera will have to differ from the play here, as if the singer is not allowed 'time for an egg in a glass of port' Tovey says he will be 'jailed for manslaughter'. Sets out scenario for the way he now sees this act; includes a suggestion of Miss Weisse for a 'great laurel-tree' to be involved in a lighting effect. Even after rewriting, Ariadne's part will be larger than Tristan's in the third act of [Wagner's] "Tristan & Isolde', but Tovey thinks he can do it. A postscript notes that he has returned to Northlands.